💬 The Wrap
What do I know about you: the average subscriber to this email? There's a good chance you're in the USA, or maybe the UK. And if you use Emojipedia with any frequency, you likely own an iPhone.
Given this information I have one note to begin: UPDATE YOUR PHONES.
Yes, Apple just released iOS 11.1 a few hours before sending this email. Barely in time for Halloween, this includes fantasy characters like 🧟 Zombie, 🧞 Genie, 🧛 Vampire and 🧜 Merperson (those won't show up correctly until you update your OS).
I just published this changelog of what's new (giraffe! dumpling! orange heart!), and what changed (flag ratios! whale! bee!) so you can get up to speed, whether you use iOS or not.
And if you want some of this in your ears, subscribe to the Emoji Wrap podcast where we'll be talking about the iOS emoji update, iPhone X, and everything below.
📰 News
🖥 Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Emoji Changelog
Microsoft had a big emoji update this month, too. For some reason I rarely hear from the public about Windows emoji support: but it's good to see it kept up to date.
💬 WhatsApp Releases Its Own Emoji Set
Curiously, WhatsApp has always used Apple's own emoji images even in the Android app, but not any longer. Here's their own new Apple-like set that's rolled out on Android. No word on whether it comes to iOS or not.
💭 Interesting
👠 Save the stiletto emoji
Cleo Levin at Slate makes the case for less-specific emojis, using the example of the flat shoe emoji (a candidate for next year): "Emojis are symbols rather than literal renderings, and following certain visual conventions makes them more legible"
🤖 Can Allo Emoji Better Than You?
From time to time, Google's new messaging products come into my periphery - but without a compelling reason to use one, I rarely do. Thankfully Owen Williams did take Allo for a spin, and here's how he found it.
🧑 Has Apple Gone Too Far With Gender Neutral Emojis?
The headline is more inflammatory than the article which does attempt to cover "both sides" of how different people might think about gender-neutral emojis. Worth noting: Apple isn't responsible for which new emojis are released, but they are the most high profile vendor.
❤️ Emojis of #MeToo
Hamdan Azhar on the emojis used in #MeToo tweets: "The top three emojis used with #MeToo are the ❤️ red heart, the 💔 broken heart, and the 😔 pensive face – conveying an emoji emotional signature of love, heartbreak, and disappointment"
📜 How the Appetite for Emojis Complicates the Effort to Standardize the World’s Alphabets
A good look at how Unicode operates today: from juggling the alphabets of South Asia to the managing the emoji standards we use today.
✨ Docomo phones in Japan now run Android
Google "Emojineer" Monica Dinculescu with a tweet about something we often forget: Japanese handsets still doing their own thing with emoji. Also: Monica is good value to follow on Twitter in general. You should do that.
🎌 The Rise and Fall of Animated Emoji
While we're on the topic of Japan: animated emojis were the norm on Japanese phones, yet not in the rest of the world. One vendor wants to bring animation back (not Apple!)
🍔 Google's CEO Just Promised to 'Drop Everything' to Fix its Cheeseburger Emoji
When Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted over the weekend that Google would "drop everything" on Monday to sort out feedback that their cheese-under-the-burger shown in Android's latest emoji font, little did he know just what a torrent of press this would get.
With great power to change emojis, comes great responsibility.
The first headline I saw pick this up was as linked above in Time, but then soon after there was ABC, The Verge, CNN Money and more jumping on board. Family members of mine in Australia sent links from its coverage on The Project. A fun Sunday evening story.
On Monday I asked other vendors about how they decided on their burger emoji ingredient order, with culinary experts at Microsoft, Twitter, and emojidex weighing in on Emojipedia.
The Washington Post summarized this by noting "Emojipedia solicited opinions from digital burger designers and discovered strong factionalization within the industry".
As coverage this seemingly innocuous topic was increasing throughout Monday, we had the alternative narrative of Fox News in the US covering the #Burgermoji incident while former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted by the FBI.
All this, and we still never heard back from Sundar.
🎙 Podcasts
🎃 Hello Internet #90: Pumpkin Pressure
For those following CGP Grey's move from ironic and disinterested emoji commentary to becoming immersed in emoji feedback on Hello Internet the latest episode continues this trend.