Ringo Starr loves using emojis.

The 77-year-old former Beatle runs his own Twitter account and has revealed he revels in using the digital signs to communicate with his online following, which totals more than 1.6 million people.

He explained: "Twitter, that's the one I do myself. But I do it at a reasonable hour! Sometime in the afternoon, when I've been up for a while. And I love the emojis.

"It started, like, thanking people for coming to the gig. Like, what a great night we had in Houston or Cincinnati or wherever. Like, wow, great crowd. Some fun went down ... So I point that out."

Ringo admitted that lots of his tweets are impulsive, revealing he often feels a need to share little details of his life with his fans.

He told Billboard: "You know, just sometimes I'm sitting there and I'll take a picture of something and just put it on!

"Or some line - I read a line, or I think of something to say and just put it on Twitter and send it out."

Meanwhile, Ringo admitted he still feels proud and amazed that the Beatles are continuing to attract new fans, despite releasing their last album, 'Let It Be', in 1970.

Ringo - who played the drums in the record-breaking group, which also included John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison - said: "The great thing with the Beatles' music - we worked very hard, and it's still relevant today. Those songs John and Paul wrote, and the music George and I and John and Paul played - that's what makes me proud.

"We worked very hard to make those tracks, and every sort of couple of years, a new batch of teenagers get into it. You know what I mean? It's relevant year after year. It just amazes me."