Hi @Tonda, we are still using the same set of Emoji, the one called Emoji One.
It’s configured as the default for Discourse. I like it a lot because it’s developed in the open: GitHub - joypixels/emojione: [Archived] The world's largest independent emoji font. Maintained at https://github.com/joypixels/emoji-toolkit..
Having a completely free, frequently updated, and completely open source set of Emoji is a huge win for the community. We love Emoji One and it’s the default emoji set Discourse ships with!
– Jeff Atwood, Co-Founder of Discourse.org
What happened is that Emoji One got updated a few days ago (December 17).
Today open-source emoji makers Emoji One, first launched in September 2014, updated their set of emoji images in a project known as Emoji One: “The 2016 Collection”.
Check out their Emoji Gallery to browse all the 1619 emojis 
The previous version of Emoji One has been moved to GitHub - joypixels/emojione-legacy: This repo was setup for anyone still needing access to our version 1.0 emoji set.. I really liked the previous version just like you, but I’m sure we’ll get used to the new version within a few weeks 