Every coloured heart emoji has a different meaning and our minds are certifiably blown.

Stop everything and prepare to have your mind blown by this very important information.

Very important information about using emojis because it’s 2018 and these are the things we care about.

As it turns out, when it comes to texting with heart emojis, we’ve been doing it wrong.

How do we know this to be true?

Science, that’s how.

via GIPHY

As reported by Wired, Instagram wizards (also known as engineers) analysed the emoji-use of its users to find that each coloured heart has a meaning behind it, so before you continue throwing blue hearts around willy-nilly, you may want read on.

The study, which brought together hashtags from posts where each different coloured heart was used, found that the colours are typically associated with certain topics, moods and causes.

Here’s what they found:

The blue heart  

This little fella is used to express a variety of interests on social media. Predominantly, it’s been used to show support for Autism Awareness, love for water sports and to represent sports teams that wear blue (makes sense)… but the hashtag #Ibleedblue, which the heart is often seen alongside, is also the tag people use to share their BDSM preferences. Right.

The green heart

This heart’s busiest time of year is St Patrick’s Day, but it’s also used in people’s “clean eating” and environmental posts. When you search the relevant hashtags, you’ll find a number of pages run by vegan foodies pop up, too. Interesting.

The yellow heart

Yellow’s all about sunshine, joy, happiness and good vibes. People go nuts for it in spring and on Earth Day. We like yellow.

The purple heart

Purple is the fancy heart, often used by influencers showing off glam outfits. It usually accompanies hashtags like ‘sparkle’ and ‘shimmer’… It’s like the Mariah Carey of the emoji world.

The pink starry heart

This guy is the no chill heart. It was typically used by ‘Grammers desperate to expand their following.

The triple heart

The confident heart. The three hearts overlaid is usually associated with body positivity, synonymous with tags like #curvy and #peachy. Whaddaya know.

Heart on the envelope

This one is mainly used for when people have made a purchase or are expecting a delivery. Meh.

They didn’t have any information specific to the most widely-used red heart, so we’re just going to assume it represents the purest form of love, which means it’s still safe to send to your mum.

We’ve learnt a lot today. We hope you have too.

Want to help Mamamia with some new ideas? Plus go in the chance to win $50? Take our quick survey now. (ALL POSTS FROM 25/09 (SOME)-