An interview with an Apple emoji designer
Comments
raincole
geophph
Not just you!
thenthenthen
Or SSID’s
9dev
> We mapped almost 1:1 to SoftBank’s set, though Apple chose to omit a few of the more risqué ones.
Which are these risqué emojis mentioned here? I don't think I have ever seen any that are even slightly graphic, which is probably why all the emoji slang conventions have spread like fire (Aubergine, Peach, etc.)
cryzinger
I was going to say that the love hotel emoji was the only one I could think of, but in the process of trying to find the emojipedia link (https://emojipedia.org/love-hotel) I found a Reddit thread that leads to a now-defunct blog post:
12 years ago - Apple removes beer, wine, love hotel, and other emojis from insertion palette in Messages app https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2qqaya/apple_removes...
The blog it links to is dead, so here's an archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20150312182931/http://blog.getem...
edm0nd
Its kinda odd how a lot of the major tech companies have self censored emojis like they are some savior of the planet for doing so.
For example the gun emoji by turning it into a water pistol instead of a real looking firearm handgun lol.
WOW THEY SURE CAUSED COUNTLESS LIVES TO BE SAVED W THAT ONE SINGLE MOVE!
Cider9986
Stickers are for you. Plenty of uncensored content and as soon as you send one from one of your packs, the recipient can start using them anywhere as well.
pc86
It's virtue signaling - nonsense from the same people who unironically say things like "lived experience" and "emotional labor." It shows they're part of a particular group, so they're Good, and if you're not, you're Bad.
pimlottc
That's a good question. Comparing the Softbank emoji from June 2008 [0] and the initial batch of Apple emoji that shipping in iPhone OS 2.2 (Nov 2008) [1], it doesn't look like there are any missing at all, it's a perfect 1:1 mapping.
stringfood
long eggplant and a smaller Pinching Hand emoji were probably the first to go
holistio
There is still no walnut emoji. Blonde-haired, black-skinned pregnant man? Yes. Walnut? No.
wpm
Be the petty, small change you wish to see in the world: https://joypixels.com/blog/how-to-submit-an-emoji-to-unicode
holistio
I will be. Thanks.
By the way, Walnut Creek is less than 100 miles from Cupertino.
I love walnuts.
CGMthrowaway
I'll bet you could find a place named after most any nut within 100 miles of Cupertino.
Jtarii
Gotta love websites that hijack basic browser functions, in this case forcing smooth scroll on.
embedding-shape
Seems to be some sort of design agency or similar, it's basically internet-law at this point that those always fuck with the scroll movements of your browser, for some reason.
hbn
I love the pregnant man emoji, I use it all the time after a big meal
j1000
Also no thief emoji or pirate emoji. Can someone enlighten me why we don't have it?
dagmx
Simply because nobody has successfully pitched the Unicode group to add one.
Anyone can pitch new emoji, they just have to go through the fairly easy but strict formal process.
blanched
Alex Schmidt, a humor writer (formerly of Cracked and others) did this process for the bison emoji. I enjoyed his “miniseries” about it: https://www.bisonemojipodcast.com/
basch
does the reverse notebooklm exist yet that turns podcasts into longform journalism?
blanched
Not that I know of. And I generally prefer written pieces to podcasts :).
The show notes for episode 2 have good references (no fun commentary though): https://www.bisonemojipodcast.com/show-notes
hbn
I was looking for a pirate emoji like 5 minutes ago. I'm sure it's not the first time but I'm super surprised that still isn't in there. Seems so obvious.
wvbdmp
What’s next, a cowboy emoji? A ninja emoji? But seriously, as much as I like emojis, I kind of feel like they should stick to emotions. Maybe other intangible things. They’re hard to convey verbally (and succinctly), simple concrete nouns are good for a bit of fun and for UI icons, but really not very useful if we’re being honest. Unless you’re texting with a lizard, or my lazy elementary-school niece who shouldn’t really have a phone anyway…
customguy
If we add 26 more emojis, one for each letter, we could use them to spell out all sorts of words - emotions, objects, anything!
holistio
Or you're texting with people whose native language uses a logographic system.
asdff
No more gun emoji. Humanity could not be trusted with the cartoon revolver emoji. Take your squirtgun, citizen.
helterskelter
We got the mpreg emoji instead of a chainsaw, which makes me feel like we need an emoji lobbying group for things like sex, drugs, sawed-off shotguns and jury nullification.
joshmn
Been waiting for seahorse myself.
carrozo
still no Guillotine Emoji either, although not for a lack of trying.
ebbi
> and then through to Steve Jobs for final approval
I miss Steve Jobs
ollien
If the author is reading this, the hyperlink to the book in the first paragraph is broken. Looks like it's attempting to direct you to an absolute url that was meant to be relative.
<a href="https://books/face-with-tears-of-joy">thenthenthen
Modifying the Universal: a seminal piece on emoji’s and possibly why/how from a humanities perspective: https://youtu.be/ZP2bQ_4Q7DY?si=TIl4Zhs2X2ZgBJfY
dwflanagan
I just finished Keith Houston's previous book _Empire of the Sum_, a history of calculators, I'll be reading this next.
aforty
So cool to get the background story on this. I remember adding the Japanese keyboard here in the US just so I could get access to emojis.
Aissen
More specifically, it was this set: https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2
Interesting tidbit:
> Emoji support required iPhone OS 2.2 and a SoftBank SIM card.
TazeTSchnitzel
These are very nostalgic. The way Apple's emoji look has subtly changed since then.
amelius
To be honest, the images look like things I've seen a hundred times over in comic books and not much more original than GenAI.
reaperducer
not much more original than GenAI.
What exactly do you think the "GenAI" trained on?
throawayonthe
is that not sorta the point? i don't get the genai reference
Tepix
Are the emojis on Apple (macOS, iOS etc) vector graphics these days?
LoganDark
They are not. They are perhaps higher resolution than they once were, but still raster:
https://logandark.net/files/328S6690-9Q368809-16843Q53-RR2SN...
NoSalt
Why does that site feel like I am reading typed text on paper?
CGMthrowaway
The letters are super fuzzy (a ton of anti-aliasing, even on the bottoms of the letters where it's not needed)
CharlesW
It's a combination of the layout, the typeface (https://monokrom.no/fonts/satyr), and the thoughtful typography.
alnwlsn
Serif font?
reaperducer
Did you print it out?
NoSalt
LOL
Off topic: Perhaps it's just me, but I have a pet peeve about emojis in anything formal. Even before LLMs, I instinctively took a repo less seriously when README.md had emojis in every section. And now LLMs have popularized that style, it's the first signal for me to vibe-detect AI repos.
I do use emojis. I love them, actually, but only in message apps.