I've even heard emoji referred to as "the carrot that keeps the implementations current." Every time a new version of Unicode is published, a few more emoji are

I've even heard emoji referred to as "the carrot that keeps the implementations current." Every time a new version of Unicode is published, a few more emoji are tacked on. It acts as incentive for all the cellphone carriers and such to put the money into updating their implementations, because nobody wants to be the one on the block with the one phone that can't render "Mirror Ball" . (ETA: LOL, Hacker News drops "Mirror Ball" https://emojipedia.org/mirror-ball/ https://emojipedia.org/mirror-ball/ from the comment when you post)