Where Did Emoji
Come From?
- by EmojiChat
- Preface
- In The Beginning..
- Introduction
- 1. History
- 2. Impact
- The Emoji Story
- 1. Emoji is Codes
- 2. What is Emoji.. Really
- 3. Steve Jobs' Blesses Emoji
- ...more coming soon
Introduction
1. History
The year was 1999. Cellphone users in Japan were increasingly using picture messages as a way to communicate. Mobile phone companies notced this trend because pictures are much larger than text messages.
A single picture message can be the size of hundreds if not thousands of text messages.
Mobile operators were already struggling to support the needs of 80 million users of a rapidly growing technology.
Engineers were told to fix this problem. The solution? Emoji.
Emoji was born in a Japanese research facility.
DoKoMo i-mode, a mobile phone provider in Japan, was the first entity to allow users to add pictures of commonly used emoticons to their text messages.
Pictures? Emoji is just.. pictures?
Emoji can be pictures. Emoji can be codes. I will get to that next.
2. Impact
Users rejoiced at having emoticons at their fingertips. Emoji made their text 'come alive'.
Wireless network operators loved them too because DoKoMo engineers figured out a way to transfer an emoji as single character.
In a time of text messages with 140 or 60 character limits, and emoji being a single character, it could go a long way.
Continue reading to hear how Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. revolutionized emoji, literally taking down the emoji berlin wall.
The Emoji Story
1. Emoji Is Codes
Emoji is the Japanese term for picture characters. These "picture characters" are standardized and built into [most Japanese] handsets.
Wikipedia: Emoji
Therefore, Emoji can roughly be translated to standardized icons with a meaning. The key word here is standardized. What makes Emoji special is that it was developed by scientists.
What is the biggest difference between emoji and emoticons?
- Emoji
- Codes meant to be read and transferred by computers then decoded into Pre-Defined images users can see. They are limited in number.
- Emoticons
- They are user created images from text so the possible combinations is infinite.
2. What is Emoji.. Really
Emoji is used a lot like the way emoticons are used now.
Wait, aren't emoticons the same as emoji?
They can be used in the same ways but they are vastly different.
Emoticon
vs.
Emoji
Portmanteau word or compound word for emotion + icon, it is a group of characters used to represent an emotion.
- What are they?
Japanese for "picture word". Emoji are often pictographs—images of things such as faces, weather, emotions or activities.(絵文字)They're all the little smiley faces!$# :) :( :D D:
- What are they..
- in human terms?
A set of predefined pictures with meanings that a smartphone user can choose to include in their text and email message because they were pre-programmed on the phone.That wasn't human terms, and, you answered the emoticon question like a 13 year old girl. Those answers don't even belong in the same category.
That's what I'm saying!!! Let me explain
I learn better by example, just sayin.
Emoticon
vs.
Emoji
＼(^o^)／(^-^)/
- Examples.
Scott Fahlman used the first emoticon ":-)" on Sep. 9, 1982.
- Who invented it?
First introduced in DoCoMo i-mode but since integrated into the mail and web services of all mobile carriers in Japan.
Please Continue to the next page.
Emojichat.
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