1. A system comprising: a memory area associated with a mobile computing device, said memory area storing a centralized catalog of emoticon images for a plurality of applications associated with the mobile computing device, wherein a plurality of subsets of the emoticon images in the centralized catalog are associated with the plurality of applications; and a processor programmed to: populate, by an operating system executing on the mobile computing device, the centralized catalog with the emoticon images received from the plurality of applications; detect, by the operating system, an execution context of a user of the mobile computing device; select, by the operating system, one of the plurality of subsets of the emoticon images based at least on the detected execution context; and present, by the operating system, the selected one of the plurality of subsets of the emoticon images to the user within the detected execution context in a user interface element, wherein the user interface element is modified for the plurality of applications based on the selected one of the plurality of subsets, wherein a popularity tab is created within the user interface element that displays, upon selection by the user, one or more emoticon images frequently selected by the user from the selected one of the plurality of subsets, wherein the one or more frequently selected emoticon images are arranged in the popularity tab based on a frequency of selection.