EMOJIS AS SECRET CODES ON DATING APPS
If you want more right swipes on dating apps, you are going to need to master the new visual language of love. Emojis are being used to send out coded messages that frequent users stand to miss out on altogether if you don’t know it’s there. Looking to hook up at home? There’s emoji code for that. Seeking a sugar daddy?
Yup, there’s a way to put that out too. Here’s your guide to some of the secret codes on dating apps…
WHAT LEVEL ARE YOU ON?
(Vanilla): Even on a dating app, some of us are still conservative.
(Folded hands + Angel): Nothing kinky.
(Cop): Any emoji that involves a uniform involves role-play.
(Ring): Seeks marriage and commitment.
(Unlock): Just out of a relationship. Recently single.
(Couple + eyes): Married but looking.
(Home): ‘I can host tonight’, very important in space-starved Indian cities.
(Turd): A term of endearment to indicate an ex.
HEAVENLY BODIES
(Gemini): Swings both ways. (Virgo): Some are still saving themselves for marriage. (Rainbow): Out and
Proud
(Closet): Discreet. Still in the closet
ONLINE TRANSACTIONS
(Honey + Old man): Sugar daddy. (Bunny girl): Female escort
(Money + boy): Male escort
(Rose): The flower is used by escorts to quote their price. For example, five roses could indicate Rs 5,000.
WHAT’S YOUR POISON?
The anonymity of a hook-up app ensures that you can openly declare your status as a ‘user’, with emojis encrypting your preferences.
Pill: Heroin (Snowflake): Cocaine (Puff): Smoker (Syringe): Shooter (Syringe + Money): Hustler or drug peddler (Maple or Mushroom): Au naturel weed or hashish
And if all of this is too much for you to handle, you could always and sign out.
EGGPLANT
The bulbous, purple eggplant was added to the Unicode emoji set in 2011, and soon became code for the penis. In 2015, it was banned by Instagram for a while for violating its policy against sexual content. Hashtags like #eggplantFridays were being used to push nude images.
GUN
The original was a standard pistol. In 2016, amid anti-gun activism in the US, and mass shootings, Apple redesigned the emoji as a colourful squirt gun. Google, Facebook, Samsung and Twitter did too. Microsoft’s gun too looks like a water pistol now. Some still want the symbol banned. BEFORE
LOBSTER
AFTER When Emojipedia published a preview of their lobster emoji, some people were horrified. A lobster has 10 legs, and this creature only 8, they cried. And so the emoji was redesigned.
DANCING WOMEN WITH BUNNY EARS
The original was meant to be a Playboy Playmate. Women’s rights activists protested, so the solo woman turned into two partygoing pals. They got so popular that men wanted one too. We now have Two Dancing
Women and Two Dancing
Men With Bunny Ears. Scott E Fahlman, at Carnegie Mellon University, suggested using :-) and :-( to mark posts that were not to be taken seriously. Emoticons were born. Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita developed 176 manga-inspired images for mobile service NTT Docomo. Japanese users loved them. Every company had their own emojis and chaos ruled. Google asked the Unicode Consortium to recognise emojis and create common codes for them. Apple released emojis for the smartphone in Japan. Other platforms followed, but sending an emoji from Apple to Android, still meant the recipient got blank boxes. Gmail added emojis. Fred Beneson retold Herman Melville’s Moby Dick entirely in emojis. People started to wonder if a new language was being born. Yay! Unicode finally standardised emojis so they appeared similar across all formats. A set of 722 emojis – emotions, poo, families, hearts, animals, clothes, food, city images, clocks, and country flags – were unleashed upon the world.
PEACH
The peach emoji for iOS also represents a well-sculpted butt. Some users even call it ‘the Kim butt’, after the voluptuous Kardashian. Apple’s 2016 update showed more fruit and no butt, but so upset users that a subsequent update returned the emoji to its former glory. BEFORE
SALAD
The original salad emoji was lettuce, tomatoes and eggs. Vegans and vegetarians felt slighted because they ate more salad, but not eggs. So in June 2018, Google decided to remove the egg from its salad emoji to make it more inclusive. The bowl is now lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber: wholesome and 100% vegan.
MIDDLE FINGER
When Apple released a set of new emojis in 2015, it included the middle finger. Other than the fact that it doesn’t represent the rest of the hand accurately, in India, it ran afoul of protestors too. In December 2017, an Indian advocate sent a legal notice to WhatsApp calling the emoji lewd and obscene and demanding that it be removed. WhatsApp is yet to respond.
AERIAL TRAM
This is consistently the least-used emoji. But a Facebook group dedicated to transportation memes protested its removal. They urged the public to tweet the emoji from time to time — and now it’s the second-least popular emoji. The new least-popular? ABCD in a grid. Really, what is that for? Apple’s iOS 5 added an emoji keyboard. Other platforms did so too and emojis became convenient and compatible to share. Facebook got emojis for chat. Emoji entered the Oxford English Dictionary. An Emoji Art & Design Show featured emoji-themed work from over 20 artists. The first World Emoji Day was celebrated on July 17, picked because it is the default date on the iOS calendar emoji. Skin-tone emojis were released. Tears Of Joy emoji was Oxford dictionary’s word of the year, for best reflecting ‘the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015’. New York’s Museum of Modern Art incorporated Docomo’s 176 emojis in its design heritage archive. Emojicon, a conference to make emojis more representative, was set up. Ugh, the awful, cheesy Emoji Movie made no one laugh. AFTER
COMPILED BY JAYATI BHOLA
About 92% online users use emojis. There are 2,789 emojis in the Unicode list, including special ones for Star Wars, FIFA and other time-bound events. Off Broadway, Emojiland: A Textistential Musical, is a tale of emojis inside a teen’s phone. Between 2,000 & 3,000 Redhead Santa Claus Mango
Japan
Tear s Of Joy ABCD in a square box
Al l o ft he above , plus Worst Screenplay Water pistol In 1999, in Japan
COMPILED BY RACHEL LOPEZ