Emoji fans from all over the world, Google has news for you. Soon the emojis you send or receive are going to look a bit different than what you may have gotten used to.
The current iconic Android emoji set had undergone a complete overhaul recently and it is Google intention to ship it shortly.
This is news not only for Android users but actually everyone who uses a smartphone, since the current Android emoji set is not always best supported on other platforms e.g. iOS, Windows, Samsung, etc… the upcoming set however was created taking that point into account.
If you’ve grown fond of the current set though, mostly characterized by its “blob” emojis – a nickname given to the yellowish face character by fans – know that soon you may have to let go of blob in favor of a more rounded character that also adheres to the latest character encoding standards (UTF-10).
Meet The New Emoji Set – Squishy Circles
Much thought was given to the newly created emoji set. It is going to fix not only cross-platform incompatibilities, but also improve cultural awareness through diversity and inclusiveness.
One prominent issue that might not had been dealt with properly with the blob set is its legibility across a variety of solid backgrounds, that is, purple emoji on a purple background may have blend in with that background rendering it almost invisible to the human eye, whereas the newer emoji set was designed to be background-agnostic.
Another important characteristic you’ll encounter upon squishy circles set is the standardization of colors to convey emotions. For instance, a neutral emotion would be mostly based on a yellowish tone while angry will include some reddish tone, sad – blueish tone, sick – greenish, etc…
Thanks to new standards the newer set is also going to be more easily scannable to make emoji searches simpler and quicker to make.
As for the question how would it look like, below you can take a glance at the newer set:
Android’s new set of emojis
Google plans to release the emoji set together with the release of their upcoming Android version “O” (8), the calendar date of release has yet to be announced, however the new emoji set is already available for beta users of Android O (as of May 17).
It is not yet clear whether squishy circles set will be made available to all Android users (of all versions) or merely those who shall use Android 8 and above.
