
The Making of Apple’s Emoji - Doubleguitars
https://medium.com/@agzmn/the-making-of-apples-emoji-how-designing-these-tiny-icons-changed-my-life-16317250a9ee
======
xwvvvvwx
Must be an incredible feeling to have designed and drawn what is fast becoming
a core part of our language.

Although looks like the pile of poo and ice cream no longer use the same
swirl:

[https://emojipedia.org/pile-of-poo/](https://emojipedia.org/pile-of-poo/)

[https://emojipedia.org/soft-ice-cream/](https://emojipedia.org/soft-ice-
cream/)

~~~
pantalaimon
They are still the same in WhatsApp

~~~
Slartie
WhatsApp seems to be an interesting case with regard to Emoji history anyway.
Am I right that they appear to have copied Apple's emoji library at some time
in the past and reused those on all platforms (except iPhone, of course)
instead of the native emoji symbols that those platforms also started to
provide? Are they still doing that today?

I remember talking to confused Android users many years ago, when all this
Emoji and WhatsApp craze started (I'm from Germany, where there are a lot of
Android users and WhatsApp is king among messaging services due to its
multiplatform capability, while iMessage isn't used nearly as much due to its
inherent limitation to iOS) and people saw me using Emojis in other apps on
iOS that were not WhatsApp. They were like "hey, how did you get those cute
WhatsApp icons out of WhatsApp and into that other app?". It got pretty clear
that many Android users associated the Emojis directly with WhatsApp instead
of recognizing them as a feature provided by the operating system, and that
seems to have been caused mostly by WhatsApp copying the iOS Emoji library
early on, when Android did not yet have Emojis or had different-looking ones.

~~~
mxstbr
Not only did they ship the iOS ones on Android for the longest while, but they
recently started testing a completely self-designed set of emojis on Android
that looks unlike any other!

See [http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/03/whatsapp-
introduces-...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/03/whatsapp-introduces-
emoji-set-latest-android-beta-v2-17-364/) and
[https://emojipedia.org/whatsapp/](https://emojipedia.org/whatsapp/) for the
full list.

~~~
currysausage
My girlfriend recently switched to iOS just because she wants those emojis
back for WhatsApp. Can’t even blame her!

~~~
acct1771
Hieroglyphic society....

------
ElmntOfSurprise
I liked the old Android emoji much more and was disappointed that they lost
the race for becoming the standard. It used to be possible to express the
emotion of being content that is not exaggerated by showing teeth or blushing
[1], and "weary face" could be used to humorously express exhaustion [2] while
it now seems to stand for "my house burned down" [3] (I especially miss "weary
cat face" [4]). The Apple emoji look like they were designed for people with
emotional agnosia.

I guess one could argue that emojis are supposed to express the essence of an
emotion to the fullest extent, but just like with color pigments it is nice to
have dilutions.

(At least they got rid of that awful, awful grinning emoji [5].)

[1] [https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/smiling-face-
with-...](https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/smiling-face-with-open-
mouth/)

[2] [https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/weary-
face/](https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/weary-face/)

[3] [https://emojipedia.org/apple/ios-11.2/weary-
face/](https://emojipedia.org/apple/ios-11.2/weary-face/)

[4] [https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/weary-cat-
face/](https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/weary-cat-face/)

[5]
[https://assets.change.org/photos/2/by/dr/IcbYdrlxwuCPHHJ-800...](https://assets.change.org/photos/2/by/dr/IcbYdrlxwuCPHHJ-800x450-noPad.jpg?1474087343)

~~~
_xander
There's a study that was done on that grinning emoji - and the
miscommunication it can cause. I'm glad they fixed it:
[https://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-potential-
for-m...](https://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-potential-for-
miscommunication-using-emoji/)

------
fredley
See also this interview with Susan Kare, who designed the first set of icons
for Mac:

[https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/primary/intervie...](https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/primary/interviews/kare/trans.html)

------
kuroguro
_> I had no idea that within a few months of completing such project, it would
revolutionize our culture’s way of communicating_

I'm pretty sure emojis were all over the internet before apple - forums, chat
apps, IMs etc? Were they the first ones to include them in the default SMS app
or something?

~~~
oakesm9
I believe they were used a lot in Japan and Apple created them initially for
that market as well. They were one of the first to make them accessible in the
west though.

~~~
archagon
IIRC, for the longest time, you couldn't even get the emoji keyboard on
Western devices without some sort of weird kludge.

~~~
rangibaby
Putting a magic number into the “magic number” app unlocked emoji on any
iThing iirc.

------
aglionby
Smilies on the old phpBB [0] forum software etc. must've been around for
longer than emoji. This[1] particular set gives me a lot of nostalgia, but I
can't remember what forum software it was packaged with. Things got pretty
extravagant, I can't really imagine these[2] being useful in everyday
conversation (potentially slightly NSFW)! Hell, even MSN Messenger had them.

Looking at these brings back all kinds of memories from the BBs I frequented a
decade or so ago.

[0] [http://i.imgur.com/LuZeOn7.png](http://i.imgur.com/LuZeOn7.png)

[1] [https://4.img-
dpreview.com/files/p/E~forums/58700537/8eea8bf...](https://4.img-
dpreview.com/files/p/E~forums/58700537/8eea8bf64a73466d8929da0488d74605)

[2]
[https://forums.somethingawful.com/misc.php?action=showsmilie...](https://forums.somethingawful.com/misc.php?action=showsmilies)

~~~
gsnedders
> Smilies on the old phpBB [0] forum software etc. must've been around for
> longer than emoji.

Emoji started appearing in the late 90s; phpBB is "only" 2000.

------
asmosoinio
Can someone explain to me what these parent could be about?

> It should be noted that although Raymond and I, Angela Guzman, are the
> original Apple emoji designers responsible for the initial batch of close to
> 500 characters ( _and were awarded a US patent for them_ )...

~~~
tinus_hn
Probably a design patent, which is a completely different thing than a patent
you get for an invention. It grants someone an exclusive right to an
ornamental design.

~~~
asmosoinio
Interesting, had never heard of a Design Patent before. Or at least was not
actively aware what that is.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent)

------
checker659
What is Raymond's full name?

~~~
reubenmorais
Raymond seems to be Raymond Sepulveda -
[http://www.xanthic.net/about/](http://www.xanthic.net/about/)

~~~
checker659
Thankyou

------
barronlroth
What about Willem Van Lancker, who claims to have created 400 of the 500
original emoji characters at Apple?

[http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/emoji-2012-12/](http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/emoji-2012-12/)

------
amelius
I just noticed that HN strips out the unicode emoticons.

For example here's supposed to be a smiley face:

(but it's not there)

[http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/263a/index.htm](http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/263a/index.htm)

~~~
applecrazy
I think comments are in ascii, not unicode.

~~~
eric_h
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

HN strips out a bunch of emoji unicode, but some unicode is allowed to get
through.

------
gadders
//OFFTOPIC

The author says:

>>Designer at Google with a RISD sleeping pattern.

What is an RISD sleeping pattern?

~~~
healeycodes
She's referring to the Rhode Island School of Design, her alma mater.

~~~
gadders
Thank you. I thought it was some disorder or type of polyphasic sleep or
something.

------
erikrothoff
I remember first seeing emoji on Github and that they were very early those
emoticons. I'd love to know more about the story there. I did some Googling
and found nothing...

~~~
whyever
GitHub is not so old, it started in 2008 IIRC.

------
amelius
I'm missing two smiley icons:

-big hypocritical smile

-not impressed

And I'm missing the option to create and send my own emoticons as SVG.

~~~
oblio
I basically want all the old Yahoo Messenger smileys, updated for higher
resolution displays: [https://usefulshortcuts.com/yahoo-messenger/smileys-
emoticon...](https://usefulshortcuts.com/yahoo-messenger/smileys-
emoticons.php)

We have a billion emojis yet we're missing some of the basic ones...

~~~
mixmastamyk
Those were great, the hug for example is so much better.

------
yuhong
I wonder if Sundar would be willing to attend Unicode UTC meetings.

------
ivanb
Either I'm too old or I don't get how to use Emojis. I only use them to add
tone or express my feelings or attitude so I use maybe five to ten most common
emoticons. Eggplant, ice cream or almost any kind of other "factual" icons are
completely useless to me. I would rather have more readable and expressive
emoticons than hundreds of useless figurines. It would be nice to see if
people indeed use them.

My favorite emoticons are Koloboks [1][2]. They are very expressive and
adorable. There were also static versions of the emoticons and they were
almost equally as expressive.

[1]
[http://www.en.kolobok.us/content_plugins/gallery/gallery.php...](http://www.en.kolobok.us/content_plugins/gallery/gallery.php?smiles.2)
[2]
[http://www.en.kolobok.us/content_plugins/gallery/gallery.php](http://www.en.kolobok.us/content_plugins/gallery/gallery.php)

~~~
tabs_masterrace
Its about being a standard. The good thing about Emojis is they are part of
Unicode and are now almost baked into everything natively. Vendors have
slightly different art, but the same meaning is always conveyed. And there's a
whole lot of them. It's like a international standardized pictogram language,
and no surprise it became popular in Asia first. Just think about how you can
already use Emojis to do some basic communication with someone on the street
of Beijing or Tokyo.

~~~
madeofpalk
> but the same meaning is always conveyed

Debatable. [https://medium.com/matter/lost-in-emoji-translation-apple-
vs...](https://medium.com/matter/lost-in-emoji-translation-apple-vs-
android-648fdd57ca25)

Old article, and Android is/has ditched the blobs, but still highlights the
importance of the art in conveying the same meaning.

~~~
andrepd
That article misses the gravest one in my opinion: toy water gun vs actual gun
[https://emojipedia.org/pistol/](https://emojipedia.org/pistol/)

~~~
Fej
That has to be the most idiotic emoji implementation - clearly not what the
Unicode Consortium intended, and borderline against the specification.

~~~
abritinthebay
> clearly not what the Unicode Consortium intended, and borderline against the
> specification.

While I think the change was a bit silly so this this hyperbolic and unfounded
statement.

The specification merely states "pistol" and uses a silhouette of a gun as
it's reference. Even if you argue that the reference is clearly an automatic
pistol (reasonable) the specification in fact specifically states _" The
shapes of the reference glyphs used in these code charts are not prescriptive.
Considerable variation is to be expected in actual fonts."_

So, as much as I disagree with the change (the intent was... well meaning if,
I think, misguided) it is not only _not_ "against the specification" \- it's
directly in line with guidance of the specification.

------
craigsmansion
These just about symbolise everything wrong with the modern web.

Whereas the humble ascii emoticon was a fun exercise in pareidolia--as an
emotional aside to whimsically add a little lightness to proper writing, they
have now been standardised, streamlined and commercialised, and are used as a
substitute for proper writing, turning everything they're supposed to
represent into a lie--a Web of lies.

Popularity seems to be the death-knell for anything cute, quirky, quaint, or
mildly amusing with its initial charm being brutally curb-stomped by the one-
size-fits-all boot of commercial interests.

> it would revolutionize our culture’s way of communicating

Thanks for that :'( Sic transit gloria mundi. And no, I'm not being snooty: I
am _that old_!

------
rplnt
First of all, I absolutely loathe emojis and hate that they are on by default
with no (easy) way to disable (turn into flat glyphs in the color of the text,
not :some_stupid_name: as some applications offer).

Having dozens of sets of emojis that look quite different doesn't help either
(on web in particular). And there's not that much coherence within the sets
either. Apple in particular is really bad at this. For example, beer[1] looks
like a photo, whereas crap[2] is in a completely different style. Each
individual one can be nice and well thought out, but it makes them all look
bad if they don't fit together.

(Twitter's are much better in this regard)

1\. [https://emojipedia.org/beer-mug/](https://emojipedia.org/beer-mug/)

2\. [https://emojipedia.org/pile-of-poo/](https://emojipedia.org/pile-of-poo/)

