The melting face emoji has been introduced as one of 37 new emojis approved this year by the Unicode Consortium. The face, with a half-smile despite melting into a puddle, is seen as a symbol of the psychological impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Other new emojis include saluting face, dotted line face, and a disco ball, which will be gradually released over the next year. Fans on social media have already embraced the melting face emoji. One Twitter user described the melting smiley face as a reflection of the current pandemic mood, while others saw it as a representation of climate anxiety. Another user predicted that the melting face emoji will be used frequently in the era of climate change apocalypse. The emoji was created in 2019 by Jennifer Daniel and Neil Cohn, who bonded over their love for visual language. Daniel, who goes by they/them pronouns, is a Unicode emoji subcommittee chair and creative director at Google, while Cohn is an associate professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands specializing in cognition and communication. Cohn's research on emotion representations in Japanese Visual Language, particularly focusing on the concept of "paperification" where characters in manga turn into paper when embarrassed, caught the attention of Daniel. Together, they noticed the absence of an emoji portraying this visual convention and decided to create one, ultimately settling on the melting face. According to Daniel, the melting face is more powerful than turning into paper. This idea of transformation from solid to liquid is also sometimes depicted in a similar manner. Cohn emphasized that many popular face emojis draw inspiration from existing visual culture, particularly comics and manga. In 1999, the first emojis were created by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita, who drew inspiration from manga. The emojis were created to help with text-based communication, as NTT Docomo had a 250-character limit on messages sent through its mobile internet service. Kurita's original set of 176 emojis is now housed in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Even in a time without character limits, emojis continue to effectively convey emotions more quickly and flexibly than words can, with the melting face being a prime example. In more literal terms, emojis can represent the feeling of a broken air conditioner, while figuratively they can convey emotions such as embarrassment, exhaustion, and sarcasm. The concept of melting, for example, can be applied to various emotions. Emojis are designed to be used in a versatile manner, similar to how words can be used in different contexts. Visual language can be more flexible than words, according to Daniel. For example, the concept of a "melting face" can evoke many powerful interpretations. Graphic designer Erik Carter, who created an image of a melting face, believes that emojis themselves are not inherently deep, but rather it is the way people use them that gives them meaning. Carter mentioned that a lot of people may feel despair due to issues such as climate change and the lack of action from our government. He expressed that at times it may seem like the only option is to smile as we deteriorate.