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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

#81

Post by krackers »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #70
jamesnorden wrote: post #36

I'm confused as to why apps were able to edit this file.

I think I remember using one of these apps around 2010 or so, and I think it just triggered the emoji keyboard to appear somehow? And once it was opened once, the ability to use it persisted. But that was just my guess as to what was happening as a user. I really doubt Apple's sandbox would have permitted editing a global preferences file like that. That might have just been the first, and not the only, method to ena…

No, I think it really did allow it. You can see the source for those emoji enabler apps in [1]. I think that various AppKit APIs do end up writing to that file so r/w access to that file may have been required. And in those days sandboxing probably wasn't as tight.

[1] https://github.com/lilyball/emojienabler/blob/ac90ef6e1ac817...

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

#83

Post by aaron695 »

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…

[dead]

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

#84

Post by avazhi »

Why is this dude acting like emojis were and are some kind of indispensable communicative tool?

They are no less today than they were then something fit for kids and unserious conversations, which is why they only ever make the news when a head of state or CEO uses one when he shouldn’t have and, revealing a lack of seriousness or professionalism vis a vis whatever he’s referring to. Our lives would be no worse if they weren’t on the iPhone today.

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

#85

Post by esafak »

harrall wrote: post #66
esafak wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is the precision of language that allows you to distinguish the subtext of those two sentences.

But by that line of thinking, it’s the same with emojis. There is a subtly to which ones you use and when. You don’t just put the same laugh emoji every time it’s funny…

I think there is a difference: with emojis, only the sender knows the precise meaning. Words have agreed on definitions.

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

#86

Post by kanbara »

esafak wrote: post #85
harrall wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But by that line of thinking, it’s the same with emojis. There is a subtly to which ones you use and when. You don’t just put the same laugh emoji every time it’s funny…

I think there is a difference: with emojis, only the sender knows the precise meaning. Words have agreed on definitions.

go tell that to genz who use :skullemoji: or koreans who dislike pinching hand emoji, or anyone who knows what a heart, dollar bills, sleepy face or whatever else means.

we make up words all the time, and they are in fact not all "agreed upon" because language changes, like how awesome used to mean "inspiring awe" and "literally" now means "figuratively" and how "google" and "tweet" are words.

emoji change meaning quicker than words, yes, but that's because the were born online and because they are easier to add semantic meaning to. they're pretty neat, to be honest.

even in a corporate setting we use emoji all the time to +1 things, to confirm something, or on video calls to give kudos, and more.

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

#87

Post by drw85 »

WalterBright wrote: post #75
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…

I used emojis for a while. Every text had to have an emoji. I spent a lot of time scrolling through the emoji palette looking for the perfect emoji. Eventually, I decided that was a complete waste of time and now I use words. BTW, one of the things that turned me off from emojis is they looked like the stickers 2nd graders would use, along with a Playmobil look.

I just think there are far too many. Sometimes I just want to add a happy face and there are 500 variations. Then I find one which I think looks happy and hover over it for a second and the tooltip says “shivering anxious constipated”.

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

#88

Post by joshuaissac »

badc0ffee wrote: post #58
lelanthran wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smileys were something else (pure acid, like this :-)). ISTR the brief time you mention calling these things emoticons.

IIRC "smileys" were what you got from fonts like Wingdings, and I believe those were short-lived. You could type :) and MS Word or Outlook, for example, would "helpfully" give you the Wingdings happy face, which would show up as a J for anyone who didn't have that font. :-) and friends were "emoticons" for decades.

> short-lived

Outlook was doing this even 3-4 years ago.

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

#89

Post by NetMageSCW »

burningChrome wrote: post #68
Zak wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 featur…

So then, was it the same thing waiting 5 years longer than most companies to have something as basic as wireless charging? Or waiting until 2023 to finally adopt USB C charging?

They waited to adopt USB-C for mobile because the trust third parties put into Apple was founded on the fact that they guaranteed ten years of support for Lightning and that’s why it was only iPhone that had accessories like clock radio docks and thermal cameras and external Lightning based peripherals for a long time.

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

#90

Post by NetMageSCW »

asdff wrote: post #48
Cockbrand wrote: post #7

It's been so long I had almost forgotten about this... there was also at some point a 3rd party camera app which had a secret setting (activated by entering some URL into iOS Safari), enabling the use of the volume buttons to trigger the shutter. When Apple found out, they banned the app from the App Store. Not much later, the iPhone's built-in camera app got that feature which we all take for granted now.

There was a time you could enter some url into ios safari and install cydia on the iphones in the apple store. They shut that inroad down pretty quick.

Cydia and jail breaking replaced hacking HP calculators for a few years for me.
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