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An interview with an Apple emoji designer

shadycharacters.co.uk

61–70 of 91 posts

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#61
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 r…

If we add 26 more emojis, one for each letter, we could use them to spell out all sorts of words - emotions, objects, anything!

26 emojis? You could do the entire bestiary from the original Rogue with that!

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#62

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.

I don't like to see them anywhere. They were cool for a while back in version 1.0 when there were a few that everyone knew and used in creative ways, before Apple* decided to make so many that you need a search bar. It's kinda like Pokémon. At this point I only get them in text messages from old people. * yeah I know technically the Unicode Consortium, but Apple pushed it hard

Emoji (and their predecessor, emoticons) are IMO the greatest new feature for written language that has happened in generations. Eschewing them is certainly a choice you can make, but I personally think it's a poor one.

Authors can now bundle emotional sentiment in text communication. Not being able to do this in the past was usually just an annoyance but could occasionally turn out to be extremely problematic. Countless miscommunications have occurred due to recipients not correctly interpreting an author's tone, and we now have a tool that can help reduce or potentially eliminate those misunderstandings. It's early days, so we're still seeing teething issues: different emoji sets conveying subtly different cues and evolving social norms around their use. But they have incredible potential.

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#63
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like to see them anywhere. They were cool for a while back in version 1.0 when there were a few that everyone knew and used in creative ways, before Apple* decided to make so many that you need a search bar. It's kinda like Pokémon. At this point I only get them in text messages from old people. * yeah I know technically the Unicode Consortium, but Apple pushed it hard

Emoji (and their predecessor, emoticons) are IMO the greatest new feature for written language that has happened in generations. Eschewing them is certainly a choice you can make, but I personally think it's a poor one. Authors can now bundle emotional sentiment in text communication. Not being able to do this in the past was usually just an annoyance but could occasionally turn out to be extremely problematic. Count…

[deleted]

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#64
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like to see them anywhere. They were cool for a while back in version 1.0 when there were a few that everyone knew and used in creative ways, before Apple* decided to make so many that you need a search bar. It's kinda like Pokémon. At this point I only get them in text messages from old people. * yeah I know technically the Unicode Consortium, but Apple pushed it hard

Emoji (and their predecessor, emoticons) are IMO the greatest new feature for written language that has happened in generations. Eschewing them is certainly a choice you can make, but I personally think it's a poor one. Authors can now bundle emotional sentiment in text communication. Not being able to do this in the past was usually just an annoyance but could occasionally turn out to be extremely problematic. Count…

And yet you are here, a site completely devoid of emoji.

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#65
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like to see them anywhere. They were cool for a while back in version 1.0 when there were a few that everyone knew and used in creative ways, before Apple* decided to make so many that you need a search bar. It's kinda like Pokémon. At this point I only get them in text messages from old people. * yeah I know technically the Unicode Consortium, but Apple pushed it hard

Emoji (and their predecessor, emoticons) are IMO the greatest new feature for written language that has happened in generations. Eschewing them is certainly a choice you can make, but I personally think it's a poor one. Authors can now bundle emotional sentiment in text communication. Not being able to do this in the past was usually just an annoyance but could occasionally turn out to be extremely problematic. Count…

We already had that ;)

Again emoji 1.0 was good. You can convey what you need with a small subset of that even. But even if modern computers were limited to emoji 1.0, I suspect they'd have been equally spammed to the point of losing meaning anyway.

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#66
post #37
post #27

> 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.)

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!

It is free PR so corporations lap that kind of thing up.

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#67
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like to see them anywhere. They were cool for a while back in version 1.0 when there were a few that everyone knew and used in creative ways, before Apple* decided to make so many that you need a search bar. It's kinda like Pokémon. At this point I only get them in text messages from old people. * yeah I know technically the Unicode Consortium, but Apple pushed it hard

Emoji (and their predecessor, emoticons) are IMO the greatest new feature for written language that has happened in generations. Eschewing them is certainly a choice you can make, but I personally think it's a poor one. Authors can now bundle emotional sentiment in text communication. Not being able to do this in the past was usually just an annoyance but could occasionally turn out to be extremely problematic. Count…

However, the lack of standardization between platforms causes its own miscommunication. Some of the icons between Apple and Google can be interpreted in significantly different ways.

There is also the pistol[0] which depending on the platform is a water gun or revolver.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistol_emoji

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#68
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emoji (and their predecessor, emoticons) are IMO the greatest new feature for written language that has happened in generations. Eschewing them is certainly a choice you can make, but I personally think it's a poor one. Authors can now bundle emotional sentiment in text communication. Not being able to do this in the past was usually just an annoyance but could occasionally turn out to be extremely problematic. Count…

However, the lack of standardization between platforms causes its own miscommunication. Some of the icons between Apple and Google can be interpreted in significantly different ways. There is also the pistol[0] which depending on the platform is a water gun or revolver. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistol_emoji

Well Apple emojis are de facto standard, the rest follow. Even the stupid water gun.

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#69
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 r…

If we add 26 more emojis, one for each letter, we could use them to spell out all sorts of words - emotions, objects, anything!

There are really 26 emoji letters that are used for spelling country codes in the flags, like https://emojipedia.org/regional-indicator-symbol-letter-u

Re: An interview with an Apple emoji designer

#70

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.

I don't like to see them anywhere. They were cool for a while back in version 1.0 when there were a few that everyone knew and used in creative ways, before Apple* decided to make so many that you need a search bar. It's kinda like Pokémon. At this point I only get them in text messages from old people. * yeah I know technically the Unicode Consortium, but Apple pushed it hard

You know, I would actually use little Pokemon sprite emojis, unlike the real thing.
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