Twitter Can Now Target Ads Based on What Emoji You Use

Tweet a pizza emoji and you might see an ad for a pizza place.

ByABC News
June 17, 2016, 11:28 AM
Twitter is displayed on a smartphone, June 17, 2016, in Berlin.
Twitter is displayed on a smartphone, June 17, 2016, in Berlin.
llustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

— -- Twitter is banking on the idea that what a person wants may be in the emoji they tweet.

The company is letting its advertisers target Twitter users based on the emoji they tweet, many of which tend to involve food and drinks. For instance, if a person tweets hamburger and beer emoji, they could see an advertisement for a local burger restaurant.

While the new tool can be used to target hungry users, a Twitter blog post also explains it can be used to target people based on their sentiment or passions.

More than 110 billion emoji have been tweeted since 2014, according to Twitter, making the emoji targeting tool a potential boon for the company as it seeks to increase its advertising revenue.

Twitter's tool is just the latest indication that we're truly living in the age of emoji. At Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference on Monday, the company showed off a new feature in the upcoming iOS 10 that can find the proper emoji to replace words in a message. Last year, the emoji laughing face with tears of joy was named the Oxford Dictionary's word of the year.