Twitter Adds 69 New Emoji - But There’s a Catch

Twitter has added 69 new unique emoji including the much anticipated flags for Wales, England and Scotland. The line-up of Emoji 5.0 revealed emoticons such as a star-struck emoji, woman with headscarf, a swearing emoji, dinosaurs, face with raised eyebrow and a whole range of diverse skin tones. Until now, Twitter kept a rather meagre and simple set of emoticons unlike other platforms that have a lot of emoji which are not used that often. In this update, there are 239 new emoji and 69 unique new emoticons a user can choose from while expressing themselves on Twitter. Twitter is the first to provide support for Emoji 5.0. There is, however, a catch.

The Catch

Most of the new emoji depend on characters that are included in Unicode 10.0, as reported by Emojipedia. This means that as of now these new emoji won’t work on iOS, MacOS, Windows and Android devices. All the new icons will not be viewable on platforms other than the official Twitter website and app and for the time being, it will be made available when using Twitter on desktop. Like, for example, one of the new emoji, the flag, will automatically be shown as a black flag on some platforms such as third-party apps and clients that do not support the new emoji yet. So in case you have posted something with the new features, on any app that doesn’t support Emoji 5.0, you now know why it doesn’t show up like it is supposed to. This, however, is expected to be a short term problem and a solution for this is being worked upon.

The Solution

The new Twitter emoji are all set to be included in other platforms before this year ends. Also, an update for Tweetdeck can be expected very soon. In the upcoming iOS 11 software update, Apple will most likely include the support required for the new emoji released. Apple is expected to make this announcement at its forthcoming Worldwide Developers Conference. At the same time, Google has also made an announcement about its plans to introduce support for the new emoji in the Android O release which is expected soon. Users who can access the Android O developer preview will be able to view the emoji already.

The other newly introduced emoji include an orange heart, a face vomiting emoji, an exploding head, a hedgehog, a t-rex, a breastfeeding woman, a flying saucer and a brain. Few food based icons have also been included such as a pretzel, a fortune cookie, a pie and broccoli.

The Unicode Consortium is an organisation which is mainly responsible to make sure that the icons or emoji are all the same on different platforms. They make the final decision about which new emoji should be released. Unicode had released an entire list of the 51 newly developed emoji set to be introduced in the Unicode 10 release. Also, a preview of the new line up for the current year was released by Emojipedia earlier this year which included a complete list of the to-be introduced emoji.

Samsung’s new app translates emoji into simple phrases to help people with speech disorders

App Wemogee Phrases into Emojis

The Italy based team of the Korean company, Samsung Italia are of the opinion that emoji could be helpful to people with aphasia communication, a language-processing disorder making it difficult to read write or talk. The neurological disorder tends to affect the language section of the brains of the people wherein they face difficulty in speaking, reading and writing.

It does not seem to affect their reasoning. Hence Samsung has come up with an app known as Wemogee that enables people with aphasia in communicating with the others through emoji. The application Wemogee tends to turn simple phrases into emojis and it is helpful for those who have aphasia with the disability of speaking reading and writing.

Thus the images enable them to communicate, making the possibility of the easy emojis translation into a supportive tool for them. Users could opt from the list of emoji phrases and those receiving the same in the form of message will see a response in text. The app is said to comprise of over 140 phrases which cover the daily activities. User could ask `what would you like to eat, for instance or convey their mood. The emoji in the app are not the default ones of Samsung, they have been easy and much bigger.

Replacing Text Phrases with Emojis

Samsung has stated that in Italy, over 200,000 people tend to have aphasia while the National Aphasia Association has informed that over 2 million Americans seem to be affected. Though the emoji is not preferred for getting rid of the language touch, the application of such a type of situation tend to be the obvious choice.

 Images tend to be much easier in selecting and providing the simple phrase and could relate clear messages. The Wemogee app is said to be a free download though the Google Play Store would be coming shortly to iOS.

Developed by Samsung electronics Italia, a subsidiary of the Italian company together with Francesca Polini, speech therapist, Wemogee is said to be substituting text phrases with emojis mixtures and has the capability of being utilised as a messaging app or in face-to-face interactions. It tends to support Italian and English and had been made available with iOS version scheduled for future release.

Faster & Useful Substitute

Aphasia is said to be the outcome when the brain sections responsible for language conception and speaking tends to get damaged where one of the most known causes is strokes. However aphasia could also be the cause from brain tumours, neurodegenerative diseases or traumatic brain injuries.

Several people suffering from aphasia tend to signal, draw or utilise picture boards in order to communicate and the Wemogee is designed to provide them with a faster and a much more useful substitute. Wemogee developers claim that it is first emoji based chat application which has been created to permit people with aphasia to connect.

The app is said to have two modes namely visual and textual. Aphasia views the emojis which have been prepared for conveying over 140 phrases and have been organized into six categories. Wemogee interprets the emojis combination into text for non-aphasic users and then translates their responses back into emojis.

What Does This Purple Bird Mean?

If you are an avid social media user then you must have seen a purple bird popping up the timeline out of nowhere in last couple of days. A trend has been in the Asian region of Facebook users wherein they are finding a purple bird in their News Feed every now and then which has left a number of users puzzled about its existence. This is a sticker for Facebook named Trash Dove which happens to be a cartoon baby of the American artist named Syd Weiler.

Inspiration behind the Purple Bird

Syd Weiller is based in Florida where he created the Purple Bird design in the September of 2016 and later on went to create a set of Facebook sticker in the month of January 2017. Trash Dove as called by the creator as made available to the public in later weeks to be used as emojis. The most popular version of its emoji is the one wherein bird happens to vigorously thrash its head up and down.

It has been available for quite some time for the Facebook users to utilize as emojis in their online conversations but it came into prominence in the Asian region with the help of a popular Thai Facebook Page. This particular Page started a dance off with a cartoon cat in the earlier weeks of February. And just within a week of this gimmick this helped in racking over 4 million of views and generated a loyal base of fan base.

Getting popular with each passing day

The popular of the Trash Dove was covered by some of the news channels in Thailand which further boosted the overall reach and might of this emoji. This move even compelled Weiler to post a Facebook ‘Thank You’ video on her Facebook page wherein she thanked Thailand for their incredible support love for her creation. It would be absurd to consider that everyone is a fan of the Trash Dove as petition has already been filed for its ban as a number of people have complained on being fed up with the purple bobbing head popping in their News Feed.

The reason attributed to its popularity in the Asian region is its unique blend of style, graphic and not so alarming bird tricks. Some find it extremely pleasing and exciting while some complains of it being annoying and distasteful. In order to reveal the inspiration or reason behind creating the Trash Dove, Weiler stated that she simply created it as dumb iOS stickers which can be used to spam friend and family in a non-offensive manner.

Trash Dove is the first case of breakout popular sensations on the internet as in the past year we have seen a number of memes likes Salt Bae and cash me outside gain huge traction within a short time. But these breakout sensations have been short lived as well as people got tired of it quickly.

Apple, Facebook and Google ban Rifle emoji from Olympics Update

Technology Giants Ban Rifle Emoji from List of Images

Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have all come together to stop a rifle emoji from being added to the list of images made available to the users on their smartphones. In the latest update this month, the emoji is likely to join the keyboard listing, though members of the Unicode Consortium, responsible in regulating emoji have voted unanimously to eliminate it in an attempt which the body has described as `bizarre and unusual’.

According to BuzzFeed, Apple had led the decision and had been supported by all the 12 technology giants who are voting members of Unicode, inclusive of Facebook, Google and Microsoft. The pistol emoji would still be available though Apple has mentioned that it would not add the rifle to its services. The resolution of blocking the rifle from being included in the update is not an inconsequential problem.

A man in France, earlier this year, had been sentenced to three months in prison for sending his ex-girlfriend a `death threat in the form of an image’ which was known as the pistol emoji. Though the pistol emoji tends to have no sporting link, the rifle emoji was projected to `represent shooting as a sport’ including hunting and marksmanship as per a submission to Unicode, which is the cause new icons are added.

Rifle – Part of Olympic Themed Group of Icons

This is not the first occasion that Silicon Valley companies have obstructed new emoji from their keyboards. On its macOS keyboard, Apple does not contain the knife and gun emoji while Microsoft had earlier included a middle finger while other companies did not include the same. The rifle had been set to be added to the list of emojis as a part of an Olympic themed group of icons that had included fencing, gymnastics, karate and swimming.

 In the Unicode 9.0 featuring 72 new emoji which will be added along with new animals and foods are fingers crossed, face palm, shrug and hand shake emoji. Unicode has added a cheese emoji, unicorn and burrito in its last round of add-ons. If one wishes to use emoji to actual words, you can now read classic works such as Moby Dick, the Bible as well as plays of Shakespeare, adaptations comprising of YOLO Juliet in pictograms which is due to the enterprising translators and an increasing palette of the little cartoons.

Unicode Approved Emoji – Universal

One will be unable to transcribe accurately The Patriot or American Sniper into emoji since the rifle emoji does not seem to exist. In the firearms collection of emoji, it is handguns all the way down. One of the few weapons in an emoji vocabulary that comprise of some 1800 characters is the revolver and an update is scheduled to be released soon. Unicode 9.0 would be bringing in 72 new emoji with it. A rifle emoji had been decided though it did not come up.

According to unnamed source who had spoken with Buzzfeed News, in a move led by Apple and supported by Microsoft, members of the Unicode Consortium had planned to nullity the rifle at the last moment. The Unicode Consortium silently decides which emoji tends to make it to the big tech platforms. Unlike personalized emoji which tend to need third party applications to view such as Kim Kardashian’s Kimoji, once they are introduced, the emoji approved by the Unicode group tend to become, basically, universal.

Emoji Feminism

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Emojis Designed to Represent Women Better in Workplace

A set of 13 emojis have been designed by Google engineers and according to them represent women better in the world of work. The designs have been presented to the Unicode consortium which is a body that tends to approve and standardise emojis. The team have mentioned that they hope the samples would empower young women, the substantial emoji users and reflect better the fundamental roles that women seem to play in the world and include healthcare workers, scientists as well as businesswomen.

 Emojis are considered to be icons which are being utilised in mobile and web messaging in order to help tell a story. The terms which means picture (e) and character (moji) in Japanese had been added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. A group of four Google employees mentioned a New York Time op-ed known as `Emoji Feminism’ as the inspiration for its new design. Amy Butcher commented that `they were told that they are the new generation of American women, no longer a minority and that they in fact, are the majority of breadwinners in American homes and yet the best that they can get is the flamenco – dancer’.

Search Engine for Emojis – Emojipedia

Research done by Procter & Gamble indicated that 82% of girls in the age group of 16 – 24 tend to use emojis daily. More than half of those who had been surveyed were of the opinion that female emojis were stereotypical. The designs of Google comprise of women in technology, construction, farming as well as the food industry. Female musician emoji includes homage to the late David Bowie with a pink zigzag on her face.

Users have the option of choosing from various skin tone and as well as the generic yellow on some of the devices. A search engine for emojis, Emojipedia, had recently proposed that one should also be able to choose the colour of hair and specify gender. All the emojis should be approved by Unicode to ensure that they are displayed properly on the various platforms.

But emojis could look quite different on competing platforms, where a dancer emoji for instance shows up as a ballerina on LG phones, a man disco-dancing on Samsung devices, a yellow blob with its arm raised on Android and a flamenco dancer on iOS. The next set of emoji candidates is said to be released mid-year though it is not known whether the designs of Google will be approved in time to be included in this.

Empower Girls Everywhere

According to its proposal, the objective of Google is to have these emojis in steady use on smartphone and computers towards the end of the year in order to empower girls everywhere. Presently, there are more than 1,000 standardized emojis that are utilised globally depicting everything from ice-cream to dragon to police cars.

But the current emoji selection feels subtly chauvinist, portraying men running and policing while women dance and cut their hair. Google had mentioned in its proposal that `considering the fact the women seem to be the most regular emojis users and they span a wide professional spectrum which is not yet reflected in the present emojis, we want to help address this pressing matter of equality’.

It is a good gesture though there is yet a long way to go in putting women on equal footing in the workplace. According to the latest data from the National Committee on Pay Equity, women in the U.S. tend to make around 79 cents for every dollar earned by men. The gender pay gap is closing since the early 60s though the change has been quite slow.

The 7 Emojis People Love To Ignore

Emoticons or as more commonly called “Smileys” or “Emoji” are an essential part of online chatting and SMS texting along with stickers. However, there are tons of smileys available that we rarely explore and tend to stick to the most common ones. Emojitracker has data on emojis used in tweets and provides us with some of the least used emojis ever. While “white card with red heart” is the most common one, let us look at the least used ones.

• Left Luggage: This technically signifies area from where you pick up luggage from an airport or hotel. It is just used 6000 times till now. While not very flexible and limited to very specific use, it can be used to denote a friend who tends to leave behind his luggage or maybe portray that you are keeping something secure and safe. 
• Vibration Mode: This emoji is not at all obvious or how it is related to vibration mode. Thus, there is lot of confusion about what it implies. It can however instead be used to imply that you love your smartphone or even its display in particular. The emoji has been used 40.586.
• Clear: This emoji denotes the letter “CL” in blue, which stands for “clear”. You can use it in phrases like “clear to send”. However, the meaning can be extended to imply “closed” as well i.e. “The shop has for good”. It has been used 24,978 times.
• Outbox Tray:While this emoji is pretty intuitive in nature, it has been used very few a times. It can used to imply that you have sent someone mail and ask them to check in their outbox or just use it to imply that you have sent something in general. It can also imply you just opened something. It has been used 31,603 times.
• Slot Machine: The emoji itself is obvious showing a 3-matched slot. While the most common use would be in case you went to the casino or in Las Vegas, there is not else existing context with it. You can also use it to imply that you just hit the lottery but that does not happen every day. A total of 63560 times has it seen itself being used.
• Clock Faces: While they are clear in what they imply, usage can be a problem. You can use them to imply the timings of certain event or that you might be late by a few hours or just it to just say you are “passing time”. It has thus seen 22993 times of use.
• Falling Line Graph: While clearly denotes something failing or falling, people fail to use it. Use it to imply “stocks crashed” or results have gone down or in general, you are not feeling great. It has been used a total of 45119 times.

These data have been collected since 2013 and to give you some perspective, the common ones have been used millions of times. However, you can find situations where you can apply them to enhance your text.