Say what words can’t express – We’ve added Emoji support

February 15th, 2009

Sometimes its hard to find the right words to say to that special someone. This Valentine’s day we wanted to make it easier for you to openly express your feelings, say what words can’t, and give meaning to those inexpressible situations. We’re excited to announce Emoji support.

Keep in mind, you can’t easily create Emojis on the website…yet. However, you can enable the Emoji keyboard on your iPhone with a few simple steps. iJustine covers how here.

The process involves purchasing and briefly using an application called FrostySpace, a Taiwanese RSS reader ($0.99). Upon using the application a new international keyboard, “Emoji,” becomes available for use.

We hope these little icons will help you express the ridiculous range of emotions and situations necessary for

this Hallmark holiday.

Posted by Brady Becker at 2:51 AM in Community, Culture

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  nevali    February 15th, 2009 at 10:01 | #1  Reply | Quote   I take it from this you're using Apple's encoding of Emoji? (I only ask, because the encoding used varies incompatibly between networks, and in the iPhone's case, is even different from other devices on the network [translation is performed for SMS and e-mails sent through the operator's gateways automatically, but not web pages].    
-   Brady Becker    February 15th, 2009 at 10:09 | #2  Reply | Quote   Unfortunately in its current state it does not work in all browsers, networks and devices. We are exploring ways to make Emoji work as unilaterally as possible.    
  -   nevali    February 15th, 2009 at 14:02 | #3  Reply | Quote   That's a worthy aim, but if you manage it could you let Apple know? :) (See http://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=698 for some background)    
-   Mary    February 15th, 2009 at 13:03 | #4  Reply | Quote   How do you get it?    
-   David Chartier    February 15th, 2009 at 06:19 | #5  Reply | Quote   FrostySpace doesn’t work after the 2.2.1 update, but other apps work better for turning on emoji support now. Typing Genius does it automatically. Just run the app, check out some features if you want, quit, and the keyboard is turned on.    
-   VxJasonxV    February 15th, 2009 at 19:56 | #6  Reply | Quote   There are free ways of doing it now, both developer and not developer based. There's an app with an Easter Egg called "Spell Number", for free in the AppStore, that will do it if you open the application and enter:
- 21 , then the keyboard will be enabled.    
-   MILE    February 16th, 2009 at 20:24 | #7  Reply | Quote   For those of you who enjoy Emoji, you might want to check out "EmojiBox" — which brings Emoji to your desktop Mac…  http://osx.iusethis.com/app/download/emojibox  It's a bit weird though, since graphical emoticons have been around for years and yet sudddeny everyone goes crazy about the Japanese variant…?!? I don't understand why Apple doesn't just allow 'regular' smiley faces on the iPhone, that would do for most people…    
-   Lesley    February 16th, 2009 at 20:50 | #8  Reply | Quote   Thanks for the link, I'm liking it. :)    
-   VxJasonxV    February 21st, 2009 at 05:33 | #9  Reply | Quote   I didn't immediate notice that this works in-browser on Brightkite as well. How exactly was this implemented so that everyone(?) can see them?    
-   Mary Hunt    February 21st, 2009 at 12:18 | #10  Reply | Quote   I downloaded EmojiBox and it doesn't work on my Mac. Is there some step I need to take to make it work?    
-   Brady Becker    February 21st, 2009 at 21:11 | #11  Reply | Quote   Hi Mary. In EmojiBox you have to select the desired emoji, then copy and paste it into your post. Or is it a different issue?    
-   Martin May    February 22nd, 2009 at 21:33 | #12  Reply | Quote   We detect Emoji characters server-side and replace them with the appropriate images.    
  -   VxJasonxV    February 22nd, 2009 at 21:52 | #13  Reply | Quote   That's kinda what I figured. A very simple elegant solution.  Unless you guys would be willing to share, I assume this to mean that I should whip up a text form on my webserver, and send all the emojis to myself in order to get the values I need to grok on :).    
-   grayle    May 20th, 2009 at 15:06 | #14  Reply | Quote   will you ever make this available on the website?    
  -   Brady Becker    May 20th, 2009 at 17:25 | #15  Reply | Quote   Emojis appear on the site currently. Do you mean adding an EmojiBox like interface on within the site itself?