A whistle-stop tour of Instagram, Snapchat or WhatsApp will reveal that when it comes to conversation, the tools of the trade are equal parts emoji and text. When you can't think of the right words, that weird ghost with the black eye says it all really.

Okay, that’s obviously ridiculous but don’t tell me you never throw in the odd wine glass, thumbs up and smiley face when organising weekend drinks.

Young ‘uns tend to use emojis even more frequently and will most likely find smartphone app Qwerky quite useful.

It installs a virtual smartphone keyboard that swipes to swap seamlessly between text, numbers and emojis. A definite timesaver for the emoji devotee.

http://www.qwerkyapp.com/