ORIGIN TALE: WHERE DO EMOJIS COME FROM?
There’s a lot of sushi on the emoji keyboard, and more meals in a bowl than most people need. And that’s not an accident. The emoji was born in Japan. It is now administered by the Unicode Consortium (UC), a US-based not-for-profit network started by software engineers Joe Becker, Mark Davis and Lee Collins.
Unicode is an open-source initiative that essentially works with platforms like Google and Microsoft to ensure that languages look similar across websites, browsers and devices. They began working with emojis in 2010, uniformalising and expanding the little pictorial dictionary. Amid calls to make it more inclusive, there are now more races represented, and more cultures and cuisines.
THE PROCESS
Anyone can propose an emoji. Many of the new types of emojis have, in fact, been a response to public demand. The most notable was when Unicode added the option, in 2015, of picking between skin shades for its various hand and face symbols.
Actual emojis introduced on request include breastfeeding woman, mosquito (lobbied for by Johns Hopkins and the Gates foundation) and paella.
So how does one go about putting in such a request? You start by drafting a proposal online, on unicode.org, with a note on the proposed character, and samples of what the proposed emoji could look like.
The criteria for approval are compatibility (whether it’s already being widely used as an icon or image on platforms like Snapchat and Twitter), expected usage level (it shouldn’t be too niche), distinctiveness, completeness (it should fill a gap in current set of emojis), and how often the
(UC), a not-for-profit network, is responsible for most of the emojis we use today.
anyone can propose an emoji, by filling out a form on the website unicode.org, with samples of the proposed icon.
cannot be too visually complex, too niche, or too similar to what’s already in the set.
on all proposed emojis. Anyone can be a member of this committee for a small annual fee.
this first test go before a panel of ‘full voting members’.
currently include Netflix, Google, Adobe, Apple, Facebook and seven other companies.
or organisation can become a full voting member for an annual fee of $18,000. A batch of new emojis is released each June.
include a mango, tuk tuk, diya, peacock and teddy bear.
proposed emoji has been requested or searched for.
The consortium decides which emojis to add, through a poll of it subcommittee members. Any individual can be on the subcommittee, for an annual fee of $75 ($35 for students). The UC subcommittee must reach a consensus on all proposals.
Once every three months, all proposals that make it past the first level go to the UC’s full voting members. There are currently 12 such members — including Netflix, Google, Adobe, Apple, and Facebook; any company or organisation can become such a member for an annual fee of $18,000.
Once approved, they are forwarded to the technical committee, for eventual design and rollout. Each new emoji is posted on the Unicode website for public feedback. A final batch of new emojis is released each June.
In 2017, 56 new emojis were added, along with 183 emojis sequences for gender, skin tone and flags variations.
Interestingly, likenesses of people (living, dead or fictional), deities and business logos are banned in the emoji world. Santa Claus is the only exception.
Once the new emojis are launched, it is up to the vendors [Apple, Facebook etc] to choose which ones they want to support on their operating systems.
THE CHALLENGES
Given the politics involved in trying to represent the world through a limited set of icons, emoji activism has become a fulltime affair.
There are activists campaigning for greater diversity; healthier food; equal representation (the bunny-eared woman was given a friend to dance with; and has been counterbalanced by dancing bunnyeared men) and peace over violence (which turned the gun emoji into a water pistol).
One such activist is Jennifer 8 Lee, founder of EmojiNation, who became a Unicode subcommittee member in 2015 and is now vice-chair of the subcommittee.
“I wanted to move the needle by being a part of the system,” she says. It was Lee who proposed the dumpling emoji, which was added last year. Similarly, emoji activist Rayouf Alhumedhi, a student from Berlin, successfully campaigned for a headscarf emoji, also rolled out in 2017.
Emojis approved this year include a mango, tuk-tuk, diya, peacock and teddy bear. Got more in mind? Now you know what to do.