Emoji has become an integral part of our daily communication. So much so it’s hard to imagine the time before the character adorns our screen. But they have a story from the origin, and it is supported by a charming trip around the world (Spoiler Alert: Apple does not create emojis). Join me as we reveal where emojis came from and the reason behind their making.
Birth of Emoji
But, before exploring the birth of Emoji, we need to recognize their predecessors. I’m not talking about hieroglyphics (even though you can make an argument that emojis re-born the ancient Egyptian writing system). I’m talking about emoticons. If you grew up in the 90s – speak late at night with friends in AIM. You might also remember formulating a combination of characters to make the faces of a creative smile. For that, you can thank Scott Fahlman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon.
In 1982, Professor Fahlman propose adopting jokes on a user post to an internal online bulletin board (aka BBOARD). After learning that some jokes were being misinterpret. The text is not effectively conveying the context you get from other forms of communication. You cannot experience the voice of other people’s vocal, hand movements, or facial expressions. So, he suggested so 🙂 added to the posts joking, and 🙁 added to a serious base of the tendency spread throughout Carnegie Mellon like fire, but the emoticon began to take a meaning could be said to be more clearly different – pleasure and displeasure. In a few months, Carnegie Mellon students come with their creative emoticons to express more emotions.
Evolution in Emojis
Immediately after, Emoticons began to spread on the internet. As adoption reached a critical mass, Japan raises the next emoticon evolution: Kaomoji (顔 字字) in 1986. Translating literally for “face characters,” Kaomojis was built with heavy influence from Japanese anime and manga. The character focuses on conveying emotions through expressive eyes and mouth. Each character is made with letters, characters, and punctuation of several languages to expand the reach of the possibility – which allows for the first upright emoticon in the world.
But, it became an innovative land, Japan didn’t stop there. In 1999, Shigetta Kurita, a Japanese interface designer, was set to create a better way to convey complex meanings in the text. Inspired by local signs and kanji (Japanese character sets borrowed from China), he made the first collection of 176 emojis for popular Japanese internet platforms I-mode, operating under NTT Docomo cellular operators. After witnessing Emoji’s success on DoCoMo, Japanese AU cellular operators and Softbank designed their own emoji sets. However, each Emoji is a proprietary carrier, so there is no inter-carrier compatibility – a problem that will then be resolved by an American company.
Unicode Customization
In 2007, a team on Google requested that the Unicode Consortium recognize and create universal standards around Emoji to unite a cross-platform pictogram. Fortunately, which is why the Unicode consortium exists. As a non-profit organization, the Unicode consortium was established to create a universal character coding scheme called Unicode in 1987. The text you read is on your screen now consists of Unicode characters. And it seems equally regardless of what you ‘read back on Mac, PC, iPhone, or Android. All modern devices adhere to the Unicode standard so that an “A” on the screen I will find it as “A” on your screen. Before Unicode, hundreds of standards are competing for text encoding – no different from the emoji problem faced. After recognizing the similarities and careful consideration, the initial proposal was received in May 2007, and 114 Emoji was added to Unicode 5.2.
At this point, Emoji remains an entirely Japanese phenomenon, but with the expansion of the iPhone to the Japanese market, Apple took notice.
In 2008, Apple released the emoji keyboard for the Japanese market with iOS 2.2. One year later, two engineers at Apple (Yasuo Kida, Peter Edberg) proposed 608 new Emoji in Unicode Standard.
The proposal was accepted in 2010, bringing the number of official Emoji to a staggering 722 with the release of Unicode 6.0.
Apple official Emoji Keyboard
It is around this time that the west was exposed to fun new pictograms. However, it isn’t easy to get the emoji keyboard added to the outside of the iPhone in Japan. Despite the obstacles, it is not possible to ignore the increasing popularity of Emoji on the internet. So in 2011, Apple added the official emoji keyboard for iOS for the non-Japanese market, with Android to follow two years later.
Given some platforms have their emoji implementation. It is essential to note that the Unicode Standard provides only general guidelines and forms the “core” for how Emoji will look. Final performance handed over to the designers. This is the reason Emoji on Apple devices could be so different from the same on Android devices.
Hairy Heart Emoji
For licensing reasons, each company has decided to design their brand emoji, which can have some rather funny results. In one famous example, Google released the Android 4.4 that includes a unique interpretation of Emoji’s yellow heart that can only be described as a “hairy heart.
” Type irregularities precisely why the Unicode Standard emoji orders remain consistent for implementing their core to allow inter-platform communication is clear. Google subsequently updated their designs on Android 4.4.1, and the world rejoiced.
Surprisingly, the directions emoji face is another important aspect of the design emoji. A change of direction can significantly change the meaning of the combination emoji. Take the following example: ???♂️ – You will be safe to interpret this as a “cop shooting robot.” However, if the gun is facing the opposite direction, it appears that the robot shoot cops.
Despite the best efforts to create a consistent design and meaning, some emoji still have been lost in translation – or taken on added significance. I receive eye rolls emoji (?) means that other people are looking at the link/image/message I just sent. The first time I saw it, I (understandably) think they are upset. Another standard emoji misunderstood is “hands pressed together” Emoji (?). This can be interpreted as a high-five or hands joined in prayer. And, I’m sure you know the meaning behind the eggplant alternative (?) and peaches (?) emoji – if not, do a Google at work.
Marketing of Emojis
However, you interpret Emoji; it’s hard to ignore the impact of their culture. Marketers have long understood the impact of emojis and even have started including them in advertising directed towards youth. Doing so shows off the creativity of the brand and can help companies appear more relatable. They are effectively speaking consumers. This strategy is undeniably similar to the company’s localization efforts. In order to translate their message into the spoken and written language of the local culture.
At this point, we’ve navigated through the winding history emoji, but what about the future? Where do we go from here? You will be pleased to know that, like any other language, Emoji is evolving. New Emoji is still being added to the Unicode Standard, and it is not a complete process. Anyone can submit a proposal. What is needed is a detailed justification of why Emoji to be added and four images showing how it should be portrayed. There are some additional considerations and requirements (may not be far-specific causes, for example), but the goal is achieved.
