A Flirtier Start to the New Year
How Playful Emojis Can Reignite Desire, Connection, and Intimacy
The New Year is often framed around discipline, resolutions, and self-improvement. Eat better. Work harder. Be more productive.
But what if 2026 began with something softer, more playful, and just as powerful?
Flirting.
Not just flirting with others, but with desire itself. With curiosity. With connection. With pleasure.
Emojis have become a universal emotional language. They express feelings faster than words, bypassing awkwardness and tapping straight into play. Yet when it comes to sexuality, mainstream emojis have historically relied on food metaphors and coded symbols. The eggplant. The peach. Playful, yes, but also indirect. They keep sexuality hidden instead of celebrated.
That is where Flirtmoji changed the conversation.
The Birth of a Sex-Positive Visual Language
Launched in 2014, Flirtmoji was the first company to design emojis that openly celebrated pleasure, intimacy, fantasy, and sexual health. Their mission was refreshingly simple: if we can have emojis for tacos and snowmen, why not for the things people actually flirt and fantasize about?
At the time, digital conversations around sex were constrained by euphemism. When desire had to be coded, it reinforced the idea that sexuality was something to hide or joke around, not something to discuss openly, safely, or confidently.
Flirtmoji offered an alternative. One rooted in humor, art, inclusivity, and honesty.
Designed With Humor, Intention, and Inclusivity
Flirtmoji was dreamed up by a small group of designers in California who understood something essential about human sexuality: play reduces shame.
They sketched, laughed, and experimented their way into creating emoji packs that included bodies, genitals, safer-sex imagery, fantasies, and kink, all rendered in cartoon-style art that felt expressive rather than explicit.
Their themed collections ranged from Toyland to BDSM 101 to Party Time. Condoms appeared where they mattered. Bodies were represented with diversity and humor. Pleasure was visible, not implied.
Because app stores deemed the designs too risqué, Flirtmoji sold directly online. Users could paste the icons into texts and chats, turning conversations about sex, curiosity, and fantasy into moments of connection rather than discomfort.
What started as a side project quickly became a cultural moment.
Why Flirting Matters for Relationships and Mental Health
As a psychologist and sex therapist, I often remind clients that flirting is not frivolous. It is relational glue.
Flirting builds anticipation. It lowers defensiveness. It signals interest without pressure. In long-term relationships especially, playful communication keeps desire alive by creating moments of novelty and emotional safety.
Emojis, when used intentionally, act as emotional shorthand. They allow people to express attraction, curiosity, and affection without needing the perfect words.
A single emoji can say, “I’m thinking about you,” “I want you,” or “Let’s play,” without demanding a response or escalating too quickly.
Representation, Pleasure, and Sexual Wellness
Flirtmoji was never just about sexting. It was about representation and sexual wellness.
Their icons included contraception, safer-sex visuals, and bodies that reflected real diversity. That matters because sexual health is not only about risk prevention. It is also about pleasure literacy, communication, and empowerment.
When people have visual and emotional language for desire, they are more likely to advocate for their needs, set boundaries, and explore intimacy with confidence.
From a therapeutic lens, this is powerful. Shame thrives in silence. Playfulness invites openness.
A New Year Ritual: The Flirt Emoji Calendar
As we step into 2026, consider reframing intimacy as a practice, not a performance.
One playful way to do this is through a flirt emoji calendar. A daily or weekly prompt that invites connection without pressure.
🎨 1. Play Day
Meaning: Sensory play, creativity, curiosity
Today is about touch without outcome. Texture, color, sensation. This is an invitation to explore the body as a canvas, not something to perform for. Paint, trace, imagine, or simply appreciate. Playfulness is the point.
Send this when you’re craving creativity and closeness without expectations.
💌 2. Desire Drop
Meaning: Naming desire gently, consensually
This is your permission slip to express want without pressure. One emoji. One message. No explanation required. Desire doesn’t need justification, it needs space to exist.
Send this when you want to say “I’m thinking about you” without starting a full conversation.
🌙 3. Slow Intimacy
Meaning: Connection over urgency
Not everything needs to escalate. Today is about lingering energy, shared presence, and emotional closeness. Intimacy can be slow, quiet, and deeply satisfying.
Send this when you want closeness without intensity.
✨ 4. Permission & Play
Meaning: Emotional and erotic safety
This is the reminder that pleasure doesn’t need perfection. It needs permission. Permission to be curious, imperfect, playful, and present.
Send this when you want to open the door without defining what happens next.
Other Examples might include:
• A curiosity emoji day, send something that sparks imagination
• A gratitude flirt, appreciation wrapped in desire
• A playful tease with no expectation of follow-up
• A body-positive emoji celebrating sensation, not perfection
This approach removes the goal of outcome and replaces it with presence and play.
Flirtmoji’s Lasting Cultural Impact
Flirtmoji captured attention from publications like The Verge, Refinery29, and Elle because it addressed a cultural gap that people didn’t realize needed filling.
By offering a visual language for pleasure and health, Flirtmoji helped normalize conversations that had long been buried under euphemism.
While the project eventually paused, its influence remains. It paved the way for more open, inclusive, and creative expressions of sexuality in digital spaces.
And perhaps more importantly, it reminded us that sexuality belongs in everyday conversation, not just behind closed doors.
Starting 2026 With Play, Not Pressure
This year does not need another list of rules.
It needs curiosity. Warmth. Experimentation. Laughter.
Whether you are single, partnered, exploring, or redefining intimacy altogether, flirting is an invitation back into your body and your desires.
As a sex therapist, my hope for you in 2026 is simple: allow yourself to communicate desire without apology. Use tools that feel fun, artistic, and expressive. Let playfulness be part of your emotional wellness.
Because sexual health is not only about prevention.
It is about pleasure, honesty, creativity, and connection.
And sometimes, it starts with a single emoji.
