Just as different font styles represent the letter “A” in a variety of different, but similar ways, so too do emojis represent winking, smirking, and smiling in different, yet similar waysÑbecause they have to, that’s how language works. Due to their standardization, they function a lot like typefaces and fonts, which are generally not protected by copyright. They are more than just tiny icons used to express emotion. It’s important to understand that emojis are different from emoticons. As the Unicode Consortium puts it, “while the shape of the character can vary significantly, designers should maintain the same core’ shape, based on the shapes used mostly commonly in industry practice” and “a design that is too different from other vendors’ representations may cause interoperability problems.” So standardization means the emoji designs must follow certain guidelines as far as appearance is concerned.
It’s not a matter of copying, but instead, a technical requirement. Across all platforms that support Unicode, U+1F600 = the “grinning face” emoji?, U+1F609 = the “winking” emoji ?, U+1F60F = the “smirking” emoji ?, and so on. That’s why we see these same emojis on various platforms. The pictographs and icons known as “emojis” are based on the Unicode Standard, which is an encoding system that is standardized across platforms, programs, and languages. Why is that? Are these platforms copying the original ideas of others? Ever notice that the ever-popular “heart eyes” emoji is available on the iPhone, Samsung phones, Facebook, Twitter, and a variety of other communication platforms? The same goes for the “tears of joy” emoji, the “face with sunglasses” emoji, and almost every other emoji. Turns out, emojis are more complicated than one might imagine-Įmojis are “pictographs images of things such as faces, weather, vehicles and buildings, food and drink, animals and plants or icons that represent emotions, feelings, or activities.” The word “emoji,” which comes from the Japanese language, essentially means picture characters.īut emojis are more than just a set a various pictographs and icons, they’re a unique language of sorts.