You might not think that emoji news is a big deal, but if you spend a lot of your conversations exchanging various emojis instead of words, it’s important that you be updated with all the latest emoji sets and if the people you’re talking to are seeing the same thing as you’re sending. WhatsApp has now launched their own emoji set that looks a bit like Apple’s own while Facebook has decided to discontinue the relatively new Messenger ones and just use one for both the main app and Messenger.
Brands like Facebook and Twitter have been using their own emoji sets within their apps, and now WhatsApp is seemingly doing the same. Their new in-app specific emojis are very close actually to what Apple uses in their devices, so you can be forgiven for being a bit confused. Side by side, you will see the difference, but if you just use it on its own, you wouldn’t know that there were any changes. It’s still in beta release so there might be some changes eventually.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Messenger were using two custom emoji sets previously, but now they’re going to stick to just one. They will now just be using the Facebook emoji set for both, discontinuing the “short-lived” Messenger set which was actually launched just 15 months ago. A spokesperson said that they want to focus on helping people express themselves by making it “fun and engaging”. So whatever emoji you choose, it will look the same across all Facebook products no matter what platform.
We long for the day when all apps and platforms will just use one custom emoji set so that we won’t get worried that our emoji expressions might get misinterpreted if they look different elsewhere. Yes, we do take our emojis seriously.
