With everything online, the way we communicate has changed, and if you’re a fan of the tiny ideogram emoji, your day might just be today. Celebrate with digital cake. 🍰
Sending a smile to a friend can be performed with words, a photo, or if you’re a little more digitally inclined, it can happen with a colon and a closed parenthesis, looking like :). That’s the way things used to be, anyway, because these days, we have more impressive emoticons that we can use, also known as “emoji”.
We probably don’t need to explain emoji to anyone, but in case you needed an explanation, emoji are pint-sized icons providing an almost pictographic approach to conveying a word without necessarily showing that word. They’re in your phone, tablet, computer, and on the web, and if you’ve sent a smile in the past decade, you’ve probably sent one at one point in time.
First appearing on phones in Japan in the late 90s, the concept of emoji has spawned an entirely new way to communicate, and one that is still gradually evolving.
Much like how words are still regularly added to the world’s dictionaries, emoji are still being designed and released, typically arriving with each new version of an operating system, or with a change to social media services, such as Facebook and Twitter.
With July 17 being World Emoji Day, Apple has decided to preview some of the new emoji arriving in the upcoming version of iOS, iOS 14, which is now in public beta.
Apple will be adding to the library of emoji already out there with a beaver, a piñata, a ninja, nesting dolls, a boomerang, lungs, and even an anatomical heart, just in case sending love with a heart symbol wasn’t quite realistic enough for you.
Alongside those additions, Apple will also be adding hairstyles and face coverings to its “Memoji”, a concept that allows you to make your own emoji based off your looks, and even animate yourself with it. Memoji is specific to Apple devices, and will now include more headwear for you to customise with, changing the way you look in a virtual word kind of way.
However emoji is a little more varied, providing that way to communicate in a tiny image that can be fun and friendly. These additions, friendly as they are, can’t be found on your OS just yet, but come this time next year when iOS 14 has been well and truly out, you should be able to share the World Emoji Day love with a boomerang and have it come right back to you.
For now, have a slice of digital cake and send a smile. Happy World Emoji Day, all.
