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It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

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Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#11

Post by Zak »

UqWBcuFx6NV4r wrote: post #3

It’s very easy for people, especially younger people, to look at this with a 2026 understanding of the ubiquity of emoji and scoff at how ludicrous Apple was being. Things were very different. Drive-by Apple decriers will attribute anything possible to Steve Jobs’ vague “desire to control”. The reality is there were things he would obsess over and plenty he would let pass him by. Emoji only made its way into Unicode…

The obsession with control I find objectionable is not their decision not to enable emoji widely until support was stable. That's an obsession with polish, not control. The commitment to polish and self-restraint to not add features until they actually work well is something I've long appreciated about Apple.

The control part is blocking third-party apps to toggle the hidden setting. If you enable unsupported features using a third-party app, the expectation of polish is obviously void. It would even be fine if Apple refused to carry apps like that in their polished, curated store, if they didn't forbid users from installing apps any other way.

Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#12

Post by dilap »

I still remember the very first time I saw an emoji -- just an old-school dumb phone, and my friend sent me a message with an emoji, which the phone, amazingly, was able to display. I had no idea such a capability even existed, and wondered for a second if I was dreaming.

Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#13

Post by layer8 »

inanutshellus wrote: post #9
NoSalt wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

emoticon != emoji

=^o_o^= ^_^ Ah the halcyon days of feelin' pompous for using random squigglies to convey emotion. Still remember being scandalized by the flip table emoticon using characters I couldn't find on my keyboard. So jealous I had to ... (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ well, not that actually. just paste, I guess.

Those are rather kaomojis, though.

Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#14

Post by Nevermark »

> Steven was the enterprising developer who actually discovered how to give emoji to any iPhone, all the way back in 2008.

I love how this person gets the credit, deservedly so, and the irony of the unsung people who did all the hard work of actually creating the support but with its potential nerfed.

Perhaps a rehabilitation committee can track those people down and we can give their stories and their soulless managers some well earned justice!

Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#16

Post by something765478 »

esafak wrote: post #15

Do emojis enrich communication, or debase it? Why not use words, with precise meanings? Emojis are prevarication.

I believe they do. When people talk in person, there is a lot of non verbal communication that give context to their words (smiles, shrugs, side glances, etc). Even when it's just people talking over the phone, the way they pronounce words carries information (it's a lot easier to tell if someone is being sarcastic if you hear their voice, for example). So, emojis are useful for providing that missing context.

Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#17

Post by esafak »

something765478 wrote: post #16
esafak wrote: post #15

Do emojis enrich communication, or debase it? Why not use words, with precise meanings? Emojis are prevarication.

I believe they do. When people talk in person, there is a lot of non verbal communication that give context to their words (smiles, shrugs, side glances, etc). Even when it's just people talking over the phone, the way they pronounce words carries information (it's a lot easier to tell if someone is being sarcastic if you hear their voice, for example). So, emojis are useful for providing that missing context.

That's a great point, but I am skeptical that emojis adequately carry the affect of nonverbal communication. I believe you make a case for sending audio/video messages alongside the text.

Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#18

Post by xd1936 »

Reminds me of typing "webos20090606" or "upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart" into the webOS "Just Type" universal search bar, which revealed a hidden developer mode switch that allowed sideloading of apps.

https://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/Getting_started

Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#19

Post by egypturnash »

esafak wrote: post #17
something765478 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe they do. When people talk in person, there is a lot of non verbal communication that give context to their words (smiles, shrugs, side glances, etc). Even when it's just people talking over the phone, the way they pronounce words carries information (it's a lot easier to tell if someone is being sarcastic if you hear their voice, for example). So, emojis are useful for providing that missing context.

That's a great point, but I am skeptical that emojis adequately carry the affect of nonverbal communication. I believe you make a case for sending audio/video messages alongside the text.

How do you feel about plaintext smilies? People were doing those long before emoji existed. :) :p :D

Re: It took four years until 2011’s iOS 5 gave everyone an emoji keyboard

#20

Post by kg »

esafak wrote: post #15

Do emojis enrich communication, or debase it? Why not use words, with precise meanings? Emojis are prevarication.

Most words don't have especially precise meanings, context is everything. So emojis being imprecise is not a unique problem.

And emojis can be especially dense with information in a way that can be pretty convenient. You can scan a 96x32 pixel block of 3 emojis to quickly gather information that would have required reading 1-2 whole sentences, potentially.

Emoji are also more 'casual' in a way that can be helpful. You can tap the 'heart' emoji on a message to a colleague or friend to express your gratitude or thanks for something without having to prevaricate over exactly what language to use to avoid seeming insincere or overly affectionate.

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