2024-01-07 UTC
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[tantek] custom emoji << Twitter popularized custom emoji starting in 2014 <blockquote>In 2014, Twitter introduced hashflags, special hashtags that automatically generate a custom emoji next to them for a certain period of time. Hashflags may be generated by Twitter themselves or be purchased by corporations.</blockquote> — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter#Posts. It's likely that Mastodon got the idea (like most of Mastodon's UI) from Twitter.