When the news hit Monday that Apple's next update for the iPhone would have 300 new emoji, the most exciting part was that we'd finally get a more diverse selection of skin tones for the human emoji. 

However, as pictures of the upcoming characters spread, some people weren't happy about the new yellow-faced human emoji. To many people, it seemed like the yellow emoji were supposed to represent an Asian skin tone.

As the Daily Mail's headline puts it: "Asians angered by Apple's 'racist' yellow emoji."

No need to cast Apple or Unicode, the consortium that makes emoji, as racist though: That yellow emoji isn't meant to look Asian.

iMore editor Rene Ritchie explains:

Now that the human emoji will have different possible skin tones, you'll be able to choose which one you want by touching and holding each emoji and selecting from the different options. The yellow color is just the neutral default — the same color as the race-less smiley-face emoji — and doesn't represent a skin color. 

"Bright yellow as the default made no sense if it was meant to represent a skin tone," Ritchie wrote in an email. "No single skin tone would make sense if diversity was the goal." 

Indeed, in the Unicode report where it discussed creating more diverse emoji, it said that it would base skin tones off of the "Fitzpatrick scale," a recognized standard for dermatology.

The yellow color that Unicode uses for the smiley-face emoji — and that will become the new default color for the human emoji — isn't on the Fitzpatrick scale. It's a "more generic (inhuman) appearance."

Here's a look at the default yellow color compared to the five Fitzpatrick scale colors the new emoji will use:

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Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop loves emoji and on breakfast television today she turned into one.

Bishop loves using them on Twitter and recently gave Buzzfeed an entire interview answering their questions with emoji.

She upped the ante today on Channel Nine’s Today Show during an interview with Karl Stefanovic, responding to a question about whether she knew what a Thermomix was by saying “I’m going to answer in emoji”.

The she pulled a bewildered face and shrugged her shoulders.

Stefanovic was impressed, laughing before declaring: “That’s why you rock, Julie Bishop.”

The Thermomix question arose after Labor politician Joe Ludwig asked what one was during Senate Estimates hearings yesterday. The Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove is buying one of the $2000 kitchen appliances, but even his official secretary couldn’t tell the senators what every foodie’s fantasy plaything was.

Only South Australian senator Cory Bernardi was hip to what every Masterchef hopeful grabs first during a pressure test.

It now remains to be seen if the Foreign Minister will begin to respond during parliamentary question time using emoji.

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Apple recently rolled out a more diverse set of emoji, so now, instead of only a default pale white complexion, emoji people will come in a range of six skin tones. 

One specific coloring however, is absent: the redhead. 

Redhead-focused website Ginger Parrot has launched a Change.org petition in response to this oversight, begging Apple to include a redheaded emoji in its next release.

"Despite the recent racial and sexual 'diversification' of Apple's emoji to be released in the next iOS 8.3 update, there's still an important group of people missing from the emoji family of 300 new symbols," Ginger Parrot's petition reads. 

"If you say you're going to diversify, why not add a few red-haired emoji in the mix? Natural redheads may be rare at less than 2% of the world's population, but that is 138,000,000 iPhones waiting to happen."

Unfortunately for Ginger Parrot and its supporters, it's doubtful Apple will cave to their demands. So far, the plea has only managed to garner 2,303 supporters, a miniscule fraction of Apple's core market. Furthermore, Apple isn't even in charge of the emoji decision: The Unicode Consortium is responsible for setting the international standards for characters — like emoji — across different software platforms, like iOS and Android. The latest batch of emoji will hit smartphone keyboards once Unicode 8.0 is released in the middle of this year.

Redheads are also not the only group that feels marginalized. As Rhik Samadder at The Guardian notes, there is still no emoji representation for those with beards or afros.

SEE ALSO: Legendary investor Chris Sacca 'can’t wait' for the tech industry to crash

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Goldman Sachs just tweeted this:

How #millennials' life choices will reshape the #economy: http://t.co/GDzFHl9f8w👦+📚=🎓➡🚫👔↪🏠👪🔙🕑🕒🕓🕖🕗🕙💼👔💏💍🏡👶

— Goldman Sachs (@GoldmanSachs) March 6, 2015

Here's what that string of emojis means: 

Millennials' life choices (or, rather, the decisions forced on them by high student debt burdens and a weak economy in their early-to-mid 20s) will reshape the economy.

This is because instead of getting a good job (where you wear a tie!) after graduation, millennials are forced back into their parents' house.

There they wait out the economy (and start paying off their student loans).

Eventually, they get jobs, find spouses, get married, and buy houses like the generations that came before. But their generation is on a lag.

Perhaps they will get jobs at Goldman, because it is a cool bank that can communicate in emoji.

SEE ALSO: Ladies and gentleman, we have a tiny bit of wage growth

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Sure, you can get emoji keyboards for your phone, but what about your Mac?

That's where the Emoji Keyboard comes in — a new Kickstarter project that wants to replace all the keys on your Mac keyboard with over 150 emojis, according to The Next Web.

Thankfully the Emoji Keyboard isn't permanent; it's a silicon cover similar to other keyboard screen protectors that fits over and around your keys, allowing you to easily remove it if you end up having second thoughts.

But it's not just an emoji-themed keyboard cover; there's clever software behind it that pairs each individual key to its respective emoji. You can switch between emojis and regular letters and characters by pressing the caps lock key, which allows you to type normally until you want to quickly access an emoji. 

The Emoji Keyboard comes in two sizes and is compatible with any MacBook Pro or MacBook Air released in 2010 onward. There's also a version that works with Apple's wireless keyboards too. Pledging $15 will get you your very own Emoji Keyboard and software shipped to you in April, but the Kickstarter will first have to raise $20,000 in the next 30 days. 

You can purchase your own Emoji Keyboard over at Kickstarter.

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If you update your iPhone to iOS 8.3 from iOS 8.2, say goodbye to the old "prayer hands" emoji. 

Emojipedia has noted that, in the latest iOS, the emoji no longer has the golden light surrounding the hands (we noticed the change via Gawker):

Even though most people call this emoji 'prayer hands,' it's also known as the "high five" emoji, according to Emojipedia. The disappearance of the yellow light behind the hands makes more sense if you think about the picture as a high five.  

People still aren't pleased about the change though:

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NOW WATCH: The Incredible Story Of The Emoji — Told Entirely In Emojis

This week's New Yorker humorously confronts former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email controversy with a series of emojis on its cover.

Clinton's expected presidential campaign has been battered by negative headlines and new revelations since March 2, when The New York Times reported that she used exclusively her personal email address to conduct state business. This reportedly violated federal guidelines and may have left sensitive information vulnerable on an unsecure server. 

The New Yorker's take on the controversy was drawn by artist Barry Blitt. In a statement released by the magazine, Blitt said he was fascinated by emojis. 

"Seriously, how does anyone understand anything that's written with only letters?" Blitt asked. "I feel sorry for the alphabet. I'm waiting for the first original novel to be composed solely with emoticons. Oh, and Hillary Clinton."

View the cover, which was titled "Clinton's Emoji," below:

SEE ALSO: The Hillary Clinton email scandal shows no signs of going away

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Bitstrips CEO Jacob "Ba" Blackstock wants to bring the emotion back to texting, and he thinks the answer is to turn you into your own personal emoji.

Bitstrips originally started out as an easy way for people to create their own comics featuring their likeness to share on social media sites like Facebook. It's since expanded into its own Facebook and mobile app, but after emojis exploded onto the scene, Blackstock and the Bitstrips team wanted to bring the user out of the comic and into their phones as their own emoji.

"Texting is making conversation more convenient than ever, but it’s also stripped away a lot of the things that make communication human," Blackstock told Business Insider. "We think one of the most important things that's still missing is identity. If you think about history, 99 percent of human communication has been face-to-face."

To remedy this problem, Blackstock and the Bitstrips team have created Bitmoji, an iPhone and Android keyboard that allows you to design an emoji avatar in your own likeness. And since Bitmoji is a keyboard app, your own emoji follows you everywhere your keyboard goes, allowing you to use your Bitmoji avatar within your favorite messaging apps such as iMessage and WhatsApp.

"We've found that people love designing their avatars," said Blackstock. "Bitmoji puts the face or identity back into communication. If you and I are having a conversation with Bitmojis, it's totally unique."

Blackstock says people can take as short or long a time customizing their Bitmoji as they'd like: You can import an existing Bitstrips avatar and convert it over to the new art style of Bitmoji, or start from scratch and choose everything from your hairstyle and outfit down to the smaller details like lipstick color.

So far, Bitmoji has managed to get some big names using its service: Seth Rogen, John Mayer, Victoria Beckham, Lena Dunham, and Zach Braff have all used the app to create their own emojis.

Yay!

A photo posted by Seth (@sethrogen) on Jan 28, 2015 at 1:40pm PST

The app has also seen success in the App Store, where it consistently ranks in the top 10 utility apps, according to ranking data from App Annie.

And while the traditional emojis found on your phone receive only occasional updates, Blackstock says the ability to launch weekly updates allows the team to keep Bitmoji fresh so its users can discuss everything from the infamous Left Shark during Katy Perry's Super Bowl performance to what color "The Dress" really is.

"Bitmoji is real-time, so while people have literally been waiting for new emojis for years, we’re releasing new bitmojis every week," Blackstock says. "We've even been able to release Bitmojis in less than 24 hours before."

Bitmoji has developed quite the following as a result of it's unique features, and Blackstock says its fans have continued using Bitmoji over traditional emojis because it's managed to meet the need for a more personal form of texting.

"People are saying 'This is replacing emojis for me' or even 'This is replacing texting and I’m only sending bitmojis to my friends,'" Blackstock said. "I really believe Bitmoji is the next level beyond emoji — and what we're seeing from users is that they're not looking back."

If you want to create your own personal Bitmoji, you can download the app for free for iPhone over at the App Store or for Android over at Google Play.

SEE ALSO: The 13 best new apps you might have missed recently

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NOW WATCH: The Incredible Story Of The Emoji — Told Entirely In Emojis

Snapchat just stealthily launched a "HUGE" update that the company says will "change your life."

Instead of seeing your "best friends" ranked as they used to be, you will now get to follow an emoji coda to see who your most snapped buddies really are.

"Starting today, a bunch of emojis will be popping up in your Snapchat friends list," the company writes (check out the post inside its Snap Discover channel).

"No, they weren't just our favorite ones (shout out to the poop emoji), they actually mean something super-important — they break down your whole squad."

Users will begin to see emojis next to some of their Snapchat friends' names that indicate the status of their photo-sharing friendship.

There are six levels of connection, ranging from best friends to "You're their BF ... but they're not yours," which is aptly represented by a smirking face.

Snapchat cheekily used a bunch of pictures of Beyoncé with members of her crew to mark what each of the different levels means.

Here's the rundown so you can keep track:

Snapchat also launched two other features — one to lighten dark photos and one to nudge you to snap old friends whom you haven't connected with in a while.

Next time you try to take a photo in a dark room, you'll notice a half-moon symbol. Press it, and the picture will brighten:

Snapchat will include a new list of people in a "Needs Love" section of your recent snaps, according to TechCrunch's Josh Constine (we haven't seen any people listed there yet).

Overall, reactions on Twitter seemed to be mixed. Some think Snapchat's new emoji-fication will cause fights (it probably will), while others like the new status symbols:

SEE ALSO: 'If the goal of the new Snapchat emoji best friends thing was to make people hate each other, it worked.'

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Apple just added a ton of new emoji to its roster (including, finally, racially diverse emoji), but we're still waiting on a few more.

Where are the cupcakes? Where are the shot glasses? Come on, Tim Cook!

How do these not already exist? We were wondering the same thing.

If we had our way, everyone would have an emoji that looked exactly like them.

Why do all of the emoji have 20/20 vision? Here's a guy wearing Warby Parker glasses. He also has a mustache, because these days, everyone looks like one of Mumford's sons.

It's a little weird that there is no cupcake emoji.

Or burrito emoji. 

Or one of these.

Or sandwich emoji!

If you're looking for something healthier, may we suggest kale?

While we appreciate the beer steins and the glass of red wine, some of us prefer the old standby of tequila shots. Don't exclude the tequila drinkers of the world, emoji!

And here's what you'll need the morning after one too many shots.

But, whatever. YOLO, right?

When we polled our colleagues at Business Insider for what emoji they'd like to see, we got an overwhelming cry for more Hanukkah-themed emoji.

And a few animals that deserve more attention.

And of course, how could we not include everyone's favorite Internet memes: Bitcoin and Doge?

Don't forget selfies! (How could you?)

And, as a bonus...the Drake emoji.

To use any of these emoji, simply drag the images out onto your desktop and email them to yourself. Or, if you're viewing this on a mobile device, take a screenshot and crop accordingly.

Just save it to your photos, perhaps in their own folder, so they're easy to grab when you need them. 

SEE ALSO: 'People Don't Use Words Any More': A Teenager Tells Us How To Use Emojis Properly

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With the increase in the popularity of emoji around the world, smiley faces and sad faces are firmly entrenched within our social messaging lexicons. Mobile keyboard company SwiftKey aggregated more than 1 billion emoji sent by millions of its users all over the world from October 2014 to January 2015

 They organized 800 emoji into 60 different categories, and were able to gather some pretty interesting facts. Analyzing emoji sent from 16 different languages and regions, they found out that happy faces were the most widely used emoji, followed by sad faces and hearts. 

There were some interesting regional takeaways, as well.

• Arabic speakers use flower and plant emoji more than four times the average rate. They also use two-thirds more sun and heat-related emoji than any other language.
• French speakers use four times the amount of heart emoji than other languages. The French are also the most positive in their use of emoji — 86% of the time.
• Russian speakers use romantic emoji triple the amount as anyone else — 7% of all the emoji they use are romantic.
• Australians use double the average number of alcohol related emoji.
• Canadians use money-related emoji almost twice as much as the other languages.
• When it comes to funny emoji (farts and poop), Malaysian speakers take the cake — they use twice as much as the average rate. On the flip side, Russia is the least "funny" when it comes to this type of emoji.
• Americans use LGBT emoji (rainbows, people of the same gender holding hands) more than 30% more than the average.

Overall, all languages are generally positive in their use of emoji — the number comes to around 70% — while negative emoji are used far less, at around 15%. 

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went to the White House for an official visit and state dinner on Tuesday.

In a speech after Abe arrived, President Barack Obama said the visit was a chance to express gratitude to Japan for some of its most famous cultural exports. 

Obama described the occasion as an opportunity for Americans "especially our young people, to say thank you for all the things we love from Japan."

"Like karate and karaoke. Manga and anime. And, of course, emojis," Obama said.

In addition to lauding Japanese animation, technology, and martial arts, Obama praised the country as one of America's "closest allies in the world."

"This visit is a celebration of the ties of friendship and family that bind our peoples," said Obama. 

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Instagram users rushed to start hashtagging their favorite emojis after the company revealed its new update on Monday.

Searching for each emoji hashtag revealed the various ways people use the popular cartoon symbols. Who knew, for example, that the red "100" emoji was so popular?

But soon, Buzzfeed’s Katie Notopoulos realized that the only emoji users could not tag was the purple eggplant, which has long been used to symbolize the male anatomy.

Similarly to how Instagram bans hashtags such as #penis, it now forbids users from searching for the eggplant hashtag. You can post it, but if you try to find other people's eggplant posts, nothing comes up:

However, the most violent emojis — such as the gun and knife — are still fair game on Instagram.

When users search the knife, which had over 1,000 tags at the time of this post, images and posts about users cutting or self-harming themselves pop up.

In addition to the knife, the gun was one of the more popular vice emoji hashtags with over 5,000 posts. The posts included people posing with guns in addition to pictures of people hunting and at shooting ranges (plus lots of selfies).

This was a pretty standard snap:

#gun #🔫

A photo posted by 恶趣味 (@gun_wong) on Apr 27, 2015 at 10:49pm PDT

Not all of the violent emoji hashtags brought up negative or upsetting images. For instance, the bomb emoji had nearly 3,000 tags, but was mostly pictures of things the user liked (think: "The Bomb"), such as food or scantily clad women.

The syringe emoji is not for the squeamish. Though nothing in this tag was too offensive, you’ll see a lot of pictures of people giving blood, sick in hospitals, or getting tattoos.

The pill emoji also was filled with images of sick people in the hospital or taking medication.

There were a few questionable images, however, that reference users abusing prescription medications. 

#💊 #PSA #LegalizeLSD

A photo posted by Christian Noel (@christiannoel) on Mar 28, 2015 at 2:26pm PDT

 Business Insider contacted Instagram for comment about the banned eggplant. A spokesperson confirmed that Instagram has banned searching the eggplant emoji, saying that they "target terms and/or symbols that are typically used to violate [the] Community Guidelines."

They added, "One of the signals we use to determine if a hashtag should be made unsearchable is if it’s consistently associated with photos or videos that violate our policies."

For reference, this is Instagram's policy on nudity and genetalia on the app [emphasis ours]:

We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Instagram. This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding are allowed. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too.

And this is Instagram's policy on images that promote self harm [emphasis ours]:

The Instagram community cares for each other, and is often a place where people facing difficult issues such as eating disorders, cutting, or other kinds of self-injury come together to create awareness or find support. We try to do our part by providing education in the app and adding information in the Help Center so people can get the help they need.

Encouraging or urging people to embrace self-injury is counter to this environment of support, and we’ll remove it or disable accounts if it’s reported to us. To protect people, we may also remove content identifying victims or survivors of self-injury if the content targets them for attack or humor.

You can see Instagram's complete community guidelines here.

SEE ALSO: We’re finally finding out all the secret ways people use emoji thanks to Instagram

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Microsoft will be the first major software platform to let you flip the bird, allowing anyone with Windows 10 to access the middle-finger emoji.

The middle-finger emoji has actually been around since 2014, but Apple, Google, and Twitter all decided to prevent the emoji from working with their software and phones, according to Emojipedia (via Quartz). It turns out that it's up to each company to decide which emojis to support, and up until now, the middle-finger emoji has been noticeably absent from iPhones, Android, and Twitter.

Microsoft, however, appears ready to let you give the one-fingered salute, and will make the middle-finger emoji available for anyone with a Windows Phone or device to use when Windows 10 arrives this summer.

The official name for the emoji is "reversed hand with middle finger extended," and, like the other modern emojis, it comes in six customized skin tones. 

You can read a detailed report of all the emoji changes coming to Windows 10 over at Emojipedia.

SEE ALSO: The Apple Watch has a secret port, and accessory makers say they can use it to extend battery life

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NOW WATCH: The Incredible Story Of The Emoji — Told Entirely In Emojis

A British firm thinks it has cracked the secret of secure online banking — emoji passwords. 

Intelligent Environments is letting users of its Android banking app log in using a combination of emojis instead of a four-digit PIN code, the BBC reports. 

The company says using an emoji password is mathematically more secure than traditional methods, because you can make 480 times more password combinations out of the 44 available emojis compared to the traditional pin. 

The traditional PIN has 7,290 unique permutations of four non-repeating numbers, while the Emoji Passcode has 3,498,308 million unique permutations of non-repeating emojis, based on a selection size of 44 emoji, according to Intelligent Environments. 

Using emojis would also stop hackers from figuring out your passcode if you've used an easily obtainable date, like a date of birth or wedding anniversary. 

People also find it easier to remember images, which might help out forgetful Brits. A third of people surveyed by Intelligent Environments said that they had forgotten their PIN codes before, and a quarter use the same PIN number for all of their credit or debit cards. 

The company told Business Insider that banks are already showing interest in the idea of allowing emoji passwords for online banking. 

The BBC report picked out what could turn out to be a major flaw in the company's idea — human behaviour.

"Statistically it will be harder to crack," former memory champion Michael Tipper told the BBC."But if you're presented with a screen of emoji and you can't be bothered to remember a sequence you're going to pick the ones in the four corners or the top row — and then you are left with an equally insecure technology."

Tipper's argument, which recommends Intelligent Environments test the behavioural aspect of emoji passcodes more rigorously, relies on the idea that people would be more likely to pick a simpler combination of emoji than they would digits.

But it seems that emoji passwords would just be an optional extra to digital banking security, and the idea is really aimed at millenials, who quite happily use emoji on a daily basis. 

"What’s clear is that the younger generation is communicating in new ways,” said David Webber, manager director at Intelligent Environments. “Our research shows 64% of millennials regularly communicate only using emoji. So we decided to reinvent the passcode for a new generation by developing the world’s first emoji security technology.”

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We recently stumbled upon a new book titled "YOLO Juliet"— a modern telling of Shakespeare's classic "Romeo and Juliet." You've certainly never seen it like this before. 

Produced by Will Wei

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For a long time I was upset that I could not type emoji while using my desktop at work. 

When you work in media, they can be an important addition to the workplace conversation!

Then, I learned that there's an easy keyboard shortcut for Mac keyboards.

All you have to do is type in "control + command + space bar" at the same time, and you'll get a pop-up of the full range of emojis.

You can then select one easily, although unfortunately you cannot select more than one without having to open the menu again (psst... that'd be a good update, Apple).

As you can see, I frequently use fire 🔥 (for hot takes), 😍 (for things I love), and 💅 (for chill situations).

Enjoy your new, emoji-filled desktop environment!

SEE ALSO: It's time to ban personal cars in New York City

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NOW WATCH: The Incredible Story Of The Emoji — Told Entirely In Emojis

In the last few months alone, emojis have transformed from ‘fun things the Youngs do’ into a truly ubiquitous phenomenon.

Now there's a website to make emojis even more ingrained in Internet culture. 

Linkmoji is a fun project that does just what its name says: It turns text URLs into emoji links. People just copy whatever link they want into a text box, click a box, and then you have a new emoji-only URL.

It’s pretty much the Bitly for emoji. 

For example businessinsider.com becomes http://🍕💩.ws/🎻🐔🍊🚴🎁👑🌽🍍. It's a nice little array, if you ask me. 

Don't bother trying to read the emoji for your URL, the selection of emoji is completely random.

Linkmoji was created by a Facebook designer named George Kedenburg III and startup entrepreneur Eric Nakagawa. On Thursday they submitted it to Product Hunt, and then it subsequently blew up. In less five hours the site had nearly 3,000 active visitors.

The project is following a slew of new emoji-related trends. Not only are more emojis being made, it's now insanely easy to type them using a normal computer and companies have even begun launching mini marketing campaigns by registering emoji domains. Emojis are everywhere. Kedenburg’s project further democratizes them.

Because most mainstream domains like .com and .org do not allow for links to have non-Western characters that aren't letters and numbers, Linkmoji creates its new URLs using the lesser known Western Somoa domain (.ws), which accepts all characters.

And if this trend continues to go on, more domains may bow down and allow the cutesy symbols as URLs.

SEE ALSO: There's a secret keyboard in your Mac that makes it insanely easy to type emojis

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NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone

The latest update to iOS includes a new broader set of diverse emojis. Here's how to choose which ones you want to use. 

Produced by Matthew Stuart

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Leading up to DeAndre Jordan's shocking decision to back out of a deal with the Mavericks and re-sign with the Clippers, players from both teams converged on Houston to recruit Jordan to their teams.

In the process, players from both teams sent out emoji-based tweets, demonstrating their involvement in this all-out recruiting war. Soon, the battle went viral, with NBA and other sports accounts sending out similar tweets, despite having no involvement 

Clippers guard J.J. Redick, who had publicly given the Clippers an "F" for not re-signing Jordan before Jordan changed his mind, went on Zach Lowe's podcast "The Lowe Post" and gave a first-hand account of the war.

Redick told Lowe he had driven to Houston on Wednesday morning after he had gotten a call from Clippers coach and GM Doc Rivers that Jordan wanted to go back to L.A.

Reddick said the story hadn't broken yet. He got to his hotel, went on Twitter, and saw the story had been reported by ESPN's Marc Stein.

He then saw that Chandler Parsons, the Mavericks' lead recruiter for Jordan, tweeted out a plane emoji, suggesting he was on his way to Houston to re-recruit Jordan:

Redick told Lowe: "I was just kind of on my Twitter account, scrolling through my timeline, and I saw a plane emoji. You know, 'Chandler Parsons to the rescue, yaaay!' And I'm just like, 'Alright, we're gonna tweet out a car, I'm already here.'"

Afterward, Blake Griffin got in the mix:

As did Chris Paul, who'd previously been banana-boating in the Bahamas with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James:

However, the tweet that really set the Internet ablaze was Paul Pierce's picture of a rocket emoji, causing some to wonder if the 37-year-old forward knew how to access emojis in the first place.

Redick was as baffled as the rest of the Internet:

"I'm still not sure why he tweeted that out, because he wasn't trolling like, 'Hey, I don't know how to use emojis.' He's got a couple of emoji apps on his phone, neither of which I had ever heard of. I have, like, the emoji app, you know, the one where you type in emoji? He's got some crazy ones, and he's got, like, these emojis I've never seen before. And so, I don't know why he couldn't type that emoji into his actual, you know, Twitter feed or whatever. It was bizarre. I have no idea. I still am unsure as to why it was a picture of a space ship emoji and not an actual spaceship emoji...  I'm still unsure of that. Because we talked about it, it just still doesn't make sense to me."

Soon, many others in the NBA world jumped in, with the Warriors tweeting out a trophy emoji and Kobe Bryant tweeting out five ring emojis.

While some argue that the whole scenario reflected poorly on Jordan, the Clippers, and the NBA, Redick felt it drew mainly positive attention to the NBA.

"It's such a small subset of people that were actually a part of this story on Twitter, and yeah, there were some emojis being tweeted out, but it was all in good fun," Redick said. "Our meeting was very serious. DeAndre's decision was very serious. But having said that, Wednesday was the best day on Twitter, maybe, ever."

Though the event did affect the fates of at least two franchises — Redick admitted he felt slightly bad for the Mavs — the viral nature of the tweet storm did make it one of the most fun, memorable sports stories in recent memory.

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