💬 The Wrap
This month we saw Apple release iOS 10 with new gendered emojis, but not the emoji update some were hoping for. Twitter promptly updated some of their emojis to match, notably 😁 Grinning Face With Smiling Eyes which now smiles on all platforms for the first time.
Lastly, WhatsApp — known for embedding Apple Color Emoji images in their app on all platforms — updated this week to include the iOS 10 set. Still no word from Apple on Unicode 9 emoji support, which has now been present on Android and Windows for months.
📰 News
📲 iOS 10 Emoji Changelog
Every emoji update in iOS 10. 632 changes in total, including modified images and completely new emojis.
👱 Male and Female Symbols Showing After Emojis
iOS 10 brought new gendered emojis, but users on other platforms now see male and female signs. Here's what's going on.
🐦 Twemoji 2.2 Emoji Changelog
In a surprise update from Twitter, new Emoji 4.0 professions are now supported - despite the draft status at Unicode - and this update also adds everything Apple included in iOS 10.
💻 Emojipedia for Mac Released
If you have a modern Mac with a force-touch Trackpad, you can now hard-press an emoji to get the definition right away. Emojipedia for Mac is free, and uses the built-in Dictionary app.
💭 Interesting
🙅 Fatboy Slim Explains Why Emojis Aren't Smileys
Filed under "things I did not expect to learn about Fatboy Slim" is his huge collection of "smiley" memorabilia. On emojis: 'I’m also quite shortsighted, so people send me emojis and I’m like, “Is that smiling? Is that crying?"'
💅 How to Emoji-Flirt Like a Real Teenager
Sorry teenagers, this is going to be another one of those "ugh, this is obvious" articles. For everyone else, there might be some insight to be gained here.
✨ Using the “emojify” feature in iOS 10
"Emojify" is what Craig Federighi called this feature on stage, and it does what you think: takes a sentence and suggests emoji replacements.
🔍 EmojiZoom: emoji entry via large overview maps
Henning Pohl, Dennis Stanke and Michael Rohs from the University of Hannover explore alternative methods of emoji input, including a UI built around zooming.
🔣 Fun Emoji (Unicode) Hacks
Being part of Unicode, emoji characters are very flexible. With a little bit of imagination, here's some fun emoji ideas that vendors could implement today using existing Unicode functionality.
☹️ Separated by a common language: frowns
A look at the "should-be-evident-but-nearly-invisible difference between British and American frowns".
🎥 Tuzki, expressive Chinese emoji bunny, to be made into movie
Tuzki is a true character of the modern age, only invented in 2006, and now available in sticker packs across WeChat, QQ and Facebook. Now to star in a movie.
👋 Meet The 15-Year-Old Behind The Proposed Hijab Emoji
A headscarf or hijab emoji is a logical emoji addition given the existence of the man with turban. Not yet showing in the public document register.
🐠 Finding Dory As Told By Emoji
In the ongoing series of Disney "As Told By Emoji", here's a cute one for Finding Dory.
👻 A Journey Into the Social Media Lives of Teens
Somehow I missed this great article last month. Rules: "the moon emoji (indicates awkwardness), screengrabbing Snapchat messages (don’t do it), and Instagram selfie saturation points (no back-to-backs)"
🎙 Podcasts
🎙 Emoji Wrap: Episode 2 with Owen Williams
Samsung emoji weirdness, iMessage stickers, no love for Apple Watch emoji, iOS 10 redesign, Jumbomoji and Apple’s emoji press release. With special guest Owen Williams: host of Charged podcast.
📇 Now Here This: Card Index Emoji; Or, Who is John Appleseed?
Producer Justin Bai starts on an investigative journey to find out whose face is on the card index emoji, and discovers more than he plans along the way.
🔫 Emoji Wrap: Episode 3 With Gedeon Maheux
Messenger and Twemoji, iOS 10 designs, more on the pistol emoji, and a look at iOS 10 stickers. With special guest Gedeon Maheux: co-founder of The Iconfactory.
😉 Namon's Notes: I Should’ve Sent the Winky Face
Namon Eugene takes a look at some emoji facts you might not know.
🗓 Events
🥘 Oct 1: Record Paella Attempt for #PaellaEmoji
Shallow Pan Of Food (aka paella emoji) was approved as part of Unicode 9 in June. To celebrate its impending (??) arrival on iOS, join this cooking of 3,000 pans of paella at Paseo de la Alameda in Valencia. Original is not in English. This is translated.
🗓 Nov 1-3: Internationalization and Unicode Conference
Now in it's 25th year, this is the conference for anyone involved or interested in multilingual software, internationalization and Unicode. Held in Santa Clara, California. Last year had a number of interesting talks on emoji, and no doubt there will also be some this year too.
🤗 Lastly
A thank you to all the new subscribers who have signed up in the past month, and to some of you who attended the Design Matters conference in Copenhagen who came up to say hello after my talk.
I will also be speaking at Emojicon at the start of November, so please do come say hello or follow me on Twitter, if that's your thing.