The u/locomojis community on Reddit. Reddit gives you the best of the internet in one place. GitHub - locomojis/Chromoji: Chromoji adds the Mac OS X style emoji font symbols to Google Chrome for Windows, Linux, and even older version of OS X. This is an exetension for Google Chrome. Enable the Emoji function for Chrome. Emoji is japanese emotion icon, you can see many iPhone user type in this emotion icon in their tweet.

As you might've heard, we potentially have 250 new emojis to play around with.

🤖 A complete collection of Google emojis for Chrome OS, Pixel and Android Google Emoji is a set of emojis that have a unique design and are fundamentally different, for example, from  Apple and Microsoft emojis. They are used in Google software, in Chrome OS, in their email client, on Pixel devices and on most Android devices.

That's right, emoji fans, 250 more pictographic symbols are headed to the web and all your devices. These new emoji include everything from pocket calculators, oncoming fire engines and a hand flipping us all off. Awesome.

Now for the buzzkill. Even though the new emoji are part of the official Unicode 7.0 specification, it will take time for the characters to make their way to your smartphones, web browsers and desktop computers.

That means it could be months or even years before you can flip off your pals via text with a symbol.

To explain why we can't currently attach a movie-ticket emoji to a text inquiring about Friday night plans, we have to look at what emoji is, how it exists, and the complicated universe it exists within.

Emoji: a brief history

Emoji symbols, as we know them today, date back to late 1990s Japan. NTT DoCoMo, the predominant Japanese mobile carrier, created a set of 172 pictographic images to use with its i-mode messaging platform.

The characters became an increasingly popular way for Japanese users to text and communicate with one another. The characters were so popular, in fact, that the other major Japanese mobile carriers — au and SoftBank Mobile — followed suit and created their own versions of emoji symbols.

The problem, however, was that none of these emoji sets worked perfectly with one another. Although Japanese phones could read emoji, the characters didn't show up for anyone outside of Japan.

Fortunately, there was a solution: Unicode, a standard designed to make character encoding consistent consistent across the world. Unicode's official goal is to provide 'a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language.'

It's what makes it possible to type out something such as E = mc², and have it appear the same way to anyone on any device.

When you see strange characters or white blocks while reading text on the web, it's typically because the character encoding setting in your web browser is incorrect (or because whoever published the text used improper Unicode symbols).

The Unicode Standard is mammoth in size, covering over 110,000 characters. It is governed by the nonprofit Unicode Consortium, members of which include Apple, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Yahoo.

In 2010, hundreds of emoji characters were encoded as part of the Unicode 6.0 specification. But getting characters added to the Unicode Standard is a long, drawn-out process. In addition to the original Japanese emoji characters, the Unicode additions included other new characters — such as country maps and European symbols.

What this means is that there is a data file that maps every individual emoji symbol to a Unicode code point or sequence.

But this is just the standardization of the symbols. Supporting emoji, as well as the specific design of the emoji characters, is up to software makers.

As of Unicode 7.0, there are about 550 characters that could be considered emoji, and another 240 emoji that represent national flags.

Not all emoji are created equal

As the very helpful emoji FAQ on Unicode.org states, emoji characters don't have to look the same everywhere they are used.

The Unicode standard merely offers a description, a Unicode code (such as U+1F36E) and a basic pictograph. It's up for operating system creators and font makers to customize the emoji as they see fit.

That's why emoji look different depending on what platform you're using. Tim Whitlock put together this fantastic table that shows how software vendors display emoji.

Apple has long been one of the biggest emoji proponents. In Japan, Apple has supported emoji since iOS 2.2. With iOS 5, Apple moved to the new Unicode standard. Apple has had support for emoji in OS X since OS X 10.7 Lion. That means that you can add emoji characters to virtually any Mac app's data entry screen. It also means that Safari (on iOS and OS X) supports emoji natively. Apple even has its own font, Apple Color Emoji, to provide color images for each of 889 glyphs. Of the various emoji sets in wide-use, Apple's are probably closer to the 'official' method.

Microsoft added emoji support with Windows 8. Microsoft also supports emoji on Windows Phone.

Google has its own emoji library too — and while various Android apps have supported emoji for quite some time, the official Google Keyboard didn't get emoji support until November — and even then, emoji was only added to KitKat.

Frustratingly, even though Google was one of the earliest proponents of emoji, the company still hasn't brought emoji support to its Chrome browser on the desktop. Which means that if you try to view emoji messages in Chrome, you probably just see a bunch of blank squares. There are some workarounds — notably extensions such as Chromoji. Emojis do work in Chrome for Android.

Meanwhile, as long as your operating system supports emoji, Firefox will too.

Because emoji support isn't consistent across operating systems or web browsers, some services have opted to create their own emoji sets. Twitter, for example, has its own emoji icons for the web. Designed by the wizards at the Iconfactory, Twitter supports more than 800 emoji that are in its own font. Which means that no matter what web browser you use, you can view emoji on Twitter.com.

And remember: Just because an operating system support emoji doesn't mean it supports every emoji in the Unicode specification. Vendors can choose which characters to adopt or not adopt. Unfortunately, there isn't an easy way for users to know what system supports what.

Who picks what emojis get adopted?

So who is responsible for deciding which emoji get added to the Unicode spec? The Unicode Consortium.

Unicode 7.0 was just released, but the process of adding the new emoji was years in the making. As a result, plans for emoji diversity will take time to implement.

On Unicode's emoji FAQ, the consortium explains why the new emoji additions include sunglasses, but not more ethnic diversity in the faces shown.

'There is a long development cycle for characters, so the sunglasses character was first proposed years before Unicode 7.0 was released. Any proposals under consideration will also take time to assess and develop.'

That said, most emoji descriptions are open-ended enough that emoji fonts can be designed to be more ethnically diverse on the software end.

After the Unicode Consoritum adopts new emoji to its standards base, it's up to operating system makers to support emoji as they see fit. Some emoji are very region-specific — and as a result, some emoji might only be available to certain countries or users by default.

And although operating system vendors can't make their own emojis per se, there is a private use area that companies can use to include their own variants. For example, Apple has supported the Apple symbol on Apple devices for years. The symbol  is represented by U+F8FF.

So when do I get to flip people off using emoji?

It depends. Because Google, Microsoft and Apple are all members of the Unicode Consortium, it's reasonable to assume they were already aware of the new additions.

We could see updates as soon as the new versions of each respective operating system is released — but it may take even more time than that. After all, each font needs to draw its own symbol.

Even after systems gain support, there is no guarantee older devices will be updated for the new characters. So it won't be safe to send the new emoji for quite some time — unless you know the people you text have a device with the latest and greatest software.

Emoji (Japanese for “picture character”) are starting to show up everywhere online. Find out what they mean and how to get started.

With the release of iOS 8, Apple is making the emoji keyboard more prominent, and Android 4.4 KitKat includes emoji on the standard keyboard, so you’re likely to be seeing a lot more of these little symbols or picture characters in the future. (Emoji is Japanese for “picture character.”) What do they mean? It depends.

Deciphering some emoji, such as this Miley-Cyrus-inspired stuck-out tongue with a winking eye, requires pop culture knowledge (though we’re still not really sure what that means). Others are obvious, such as a happy face. It seems as if there’s an emoji for everything and new ones are popping up all the time. Martha Brockenbrough, author of books for smart kids and juvenile adults and the founder of National Grammar Day, found so much meaning and inspiration in emoji that she used them to tweet a (short) novel.

Getting Started Using Emoji

Here’s how to get started using emoji. Some emoji are supported by certain sites, such as Campfire or Basecamp, but sometimes you’ll have to set up a keyboard depending on the device you’re using. Here’s a guide to getting the keyboard set-up for IOS tablets and phones, and here’s a guide for Android users.

You can also view emoji on your computer by downloading and adding the Google Chrome extension Chromoji. Chromoji will allow you to see, copy, and paste Mac OS X style emoji on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X Chrome browsers.

There are a few known issue to Chromoji regarding where you can use emoji. A few places where Chromoji will not work include Google Hangouts chat and Facebook messages. Chromoji will allow emoji to show up on Twitter, Facebook comments, statuses, and walls, and in Gmail, and various other sites. (You will have to test Chromji to see what works for you on your system.)

To check if you can see emoji, many sources recommend going to the emoji Wikipedia page. If you can see the list of emoji, then you’re good to go.

6 Emoji To Start Using Right Now and What They Mean

Now that your keyboard is ready, here are six emoji that almost everyone will understand. Think of them as “starter emoji”!

The Heart

According to FiveThirtyEight’s emoji report, the heart is the most popular emoji on Twitter (and probably elsewhere too).

Chromecast

What does it mean? This emoji means love, but it’s not limited to romantic love. You can use it to express your for cookies, the new Godzilla movie, or the latest Grammar Girl podcast.

Emoji Copy And Paste

Heart Eyes, Joy, and Unamused

:) and :( are so last year. Why settle for two choices when you can express a specific emotion through facial emoji? Before you get carried away, start slow. According to FiveThirtyEight, the most popular facial emoji are heart eyes (), joy (), and unamused (). We think these three do the trick when you’re first starting out. No one is just :) anymore. They’re , right?

What they mean:

Chrome Store

You’re not amused. Use this when you’re tired of using “LOL” (and you aren’t really laughing out loud) and finally feel you want to be honest.

You love something so much you wish your hearts were eyes. Use this when someone tells you you’re having your favorite pizza for dinner, when your significant other says something sweet, etc.

You’re so happy you can’t help but shed a tear. Use this for weddings, baby showers, laughing so hard you’re crying, etc.

Like and Dislike

Facebook may not have a dislike button, but you do have a dislike emoji. Like something your friend just said on Twitter? Dislike that person’s Facebook status? Use or to let them know.

How to Punctuate Around Emoji

Chromoji For Google Chrome

Chromoji Extension

When you use emoji in sentences, you’ll immediately start wondering where you should put your periods and comma—before or after the emoji? In The Grammar Devotional, Grammar Girl recommends treating emoticons like dashes and putting them after punctuation. The same advice works for emoji when you’re using them to highlight something, as I did with the snail in the “Heart Eyes, Joy, and Unamused” section above. However, if an emoji is standing in for a word, put it where you’d put the word—usually before the punctuation mark—as I did in the last line of the first paragraph of the “Heart Eyes, Joy, and Unamused” section above in which is essentially standing in for the word joyous.

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