Pope Francis gets his own set of emojis ahead of U.S. visit

Communicating during Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia later this month ought to be a little easier now thanks to the new "Popemoji" keyboard app.

Released Thursday by Swyft Media, the Popemoji app, as the name suggests, takes all things pope and presents them in beloved, animated emoji form in commemoration of the pope's first visit to the U.S.

"We worked really hard to have his persona and his emotion and his fun charismatic attitude come through in each one of the emoji," designer Evan Wray told Mashable of the Popemoji app.

It features some 52 pope-related "stickers," or plain images, as well as 14 moving GIFs of His Holiness. And, yes, some Philly-specific images were included on the list.

Take, for example, this one of Pope Francis chowing down on a cheesesteak, which he appears to prefer with peppers:

Or this one, in which Pope Francis gives the Liberty Bell a hearty thumbs-up, because who doesn't love freedom?

Or, finally, Pope Francis embracing Philly's iconic LOVE Park sign, just like a regular ol' tourist:

Aside from that, Philly-centric Popemojis are a little light. However, as the app's creators told Mashable, there could be a few new stickers and GIFs released in the future, so there may be more animated holy cheesesteaks to come yet.

Swyft's Popemoji app is currently available for download on iOS and Android devices here.

[Mashable]