💬 The Wrap
🥳 Happy World Emoji Day friends and newsletter readers! Or should I say #WorldEmojiDay (as that's where all the action is...at least a tweet a second using it, as I type this)
What happens today? Probably the biggest news so far is Apple showing its new emojis for 2019. We've also given out the award for the Most Popular New Emoji, and revealed some of the least popular new emojis.
Be sure to catch the latest Emoji Wrap podcast where I talk about all of this with Gretchen McCulloch and Casey Liss.
📰 News
📲 Apple Reveals New 2019 Emojis for World Emoji Day
This is the first time we've seen most of Apple's new emojis, with the release still a few months away in 'fall' (northern hemisphere). I posted a summary here, but there's also the post from Apple's newsroom here.
Worth noting: Google has these in beta in Android Q, and Microsoft has these on the latest version of Windows 10. Nonetheless, it's clear that people feel far more emotion toward Apple's emoji updates. My theory? It's because so many people get them at once, and they have confidence they will get them. With a Google emoji update, many users just don't know if or when they might get it, and the emoji fragmentation between apps means they see each set less often.
💭 Interesting
🏆 World Emoji Award Winners for 2019
...and the Award for Most Popular New Emoji goes to.... 🥁 (results)
(also interesting: the public-voted 'most anticipated' emoji last year, is one of the least-used emojis this year)
🧮 Apple’s abacus emoji is wrong
Sometimes an emoji being wrong sets the internet on fire (see: bagel, burger), and sometimes its the abacus.
🍆 Eggplant emoji used in 2degrees ad not seriously offensive
I agree with, yet am amused by, this ruling.
🧜 When a Merperson is a Merman
Google's Jennifer Daniel has been really pushing the gender inclusive options in Unicode ahead, and this is a great paper with more detail for those interested.
💟 Sponsor
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🔣 Unicode
🤔 Emoji Color Variations Under Consideration by Unicode
I'm not sure what I think about the push toward color options in emoji. I can see the potential popularity of a few variations - but whether that's worth a mechanism to vary the emoji, I'm not sure. I wouldn't call it a priority, at least.
🗓 Events
🇬🇧 The British Library, London
This is tonight in London. A few tickets are still available to see me and Unicode president and chair of the emoji subcommittee Mark Davis speaking at the British Library. There will be a chance for Q&A, and I encourage you to come along if you have any emoji questions.
🇮🇹 The National Museum of Cinema, Turin
This exhibition opens to the public today - World Emoji Day - in Turin, Italy. Includes the actual first emoji set from 1997, and plenty more. Entry today is €1 only, for #WorldEmojiDay.