Former Apple Intern Looks Back at Designing First Apple Emoji in 2008

[AleRod]

 

[Dan Holmstock]

The more my kids use Emoji's - the more I think of this:

[doublepost=1515702446][/doublepost]

Ah i miss those 1990's era flying toasters screen savers, afterdark i think it was called. lol

 

[Raid]

... I'm still waiting for a fan emoji. I was hoping for a desktop fan, now I'd be happy with a ceiling fan...

 

[karranz]

back in the days when apple paid attention to details.

 

[MyAppleWorld]

And we still can't search for them

 

[zipster]

Good, now I know who to I will address hate-mail...

In all seriousness, design is hard and I'm sure these were challenging as it's a new paradigm of communication and while unicode is setting that xxxxxxx = smiley poop, bringing text to life is very hard and these are universally understood and transcend language barriers and even culture.

However, I hate emoji. I block people who use and I won't participate. I also don't really use iOS except reading email and news so I don't understand why someone would scroll through thousands of cartoons instead of just typing :thumbs up: with their keyboard.

I think emoji are a result of software keyboards being too slow and crappy over physical ones. Typing on a keyboard is far more efficient and its why it took me so long to give up a Blackberry as my getting things done device. I loathe typing on iPhones and generally switch to my mac or call someone when a text conversation goes beyond 2-3 messages. So I guess emoji is for that? I still think it's something kids do kind of like voicemail is dead but for some reason audio messages via iMessage aren't?

Anyway, cool story and awesome resume item and while I understand they faced great challenges in this, I still think emoji things are effing stupid. What's so hard about just a smiley face?

: -)

You sound old.
[doublepost=1515703217][/doublepost]

And we still can't search for them

Gboard, if you're into 3rd party keyboards.

 

[eatrains]

All I can say is, thank god Apple put all this time and effort into this ongoing project, and did not waster their time on something pointless, like longer lasting/larger batteries.

You might not be aware, but visual designers and battery engineers don't work on the same thing.

 

[zorinlynx]

I think it was Apple that really caused the popularity of Emoji in the US. I got my first iPhone in 2010 and found the Emoji to be amusing. I sent a few to my friends, but they all had Android phones at the time and couldn't see them. Apple led the charge on this.

It wasn't long before other phone makers caught on and now emojis are a big part of our culture.

Not sure whether to praise or berate Apple for this. 😉

EDIT: I'll give Apple praise for popularizing something cute and fun in the US, and will berate Sony for making a really bad movie about it. Good compromise I think.

 

[profets]

All I can say is, thank god Apple put all this time and effort into this ongoing project, and did not waster their time on something pointless, like longer lasting/larger batteries.

Yes, because battery engineers are the ones designing emojis.

 

[Boatboy24]

The more my kids use Emoji's - the more I think of this:

[doublepost=1515702446][/doublepost]

Ah i miss those 1990's era flying toasters screen savers, afterdark i think it was called. lol

All those heart emojis and only one poop. 🙁

I share your nostalgia for the toasters. Johnny Castaway was another I was fond of.

 

[IbisDoc]

Was really hoping for an in-depth, front page piece on emojis.

 

[Dan Holmstock]

All those heart emojis and only one poop. 🙁

I share your nostalgia for the toasters. Johnny Castaway was another I was fond of.

AH YES! WOW now that takes me back! -

lol

 

[travelsheep]

"I constantly checked the details: the direction of the woodgrain, how freckles appeared on apples and eggplants,"

I wonder where that intern stole the emojis from, which she then checked in so much detail

 

[GREEN4U]

Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave.

 

[44267547]

back in the days when apple paid attention to details.

Hyperbole. Considering the fact how things have changed dramatically in terms of interacting with iOS, emoji's/Animoji's , Augmented reality, etc. I would say Apple pays more detail today than they did 10 years ago.

 

[riverfreak]

Just immagine if the same attention to details was given to macOS and iOS coding...

Immagine the possibilities!!!

Yeah! Too bad all those developers at Apple are just sitting around in beanbag chairs playing PUBG and eating free kale salads.

Because I literally can’t do a single thing on my phone or laptop. I sent in this post by snail mail.

 

[ThaRuler]

Emojis now are so popular, Apple decided to put a dedicated Emoji bar on MacBook Pros

 

[riverfreak]

Was really hoping for an in-depth, front page piece on emojis.

You should read the Medium post. It’s quite interesting.

 

[Peel]

All I can say is, thank god Apple put all this time and effort into this ongoing project, and did not waster their time on something pointless, like longer lasting/larger batteries.

Yes, because graphic designers are known for their innate skills at being battery designers.
Employment at Apple is not a zero sum game - you don't lose a battery designer because you've hired a graphic designer. You might as well complain about Apple hiring janitors to keep their offices clean, when those janitors should be turning their attention to designing the circuitry for the next-gen A12 chipset

 

[Brandhouse]

Meh. And 10 years on we're still being told emojis take precedent over iOS improvements that really matter.

 

[Arndroid]

Good, now I know who to I will address hate-mail...

In all seriousness, design is hard and I'm sure these were challenging as it's a new paradigm of communication and while unicode is setting that xxxxxxx = smiley poop, bringing text to life is very hard and these are universally understood and transcend language barriers and even culture.

However, I hate emoji. I block people who use and I won't participate. I also don't really use iOS except reading email and news so I don't understand why someone would scroll through thousands of cartoons instead of just typing :thumbs up: with their keyboard.

I think emoji are a result of software keyboards being too slow and crappy over physical ones. Typing on a keyboard is far more efficient and its why it took me so long to give up a Blackberry as my getting things done device. I loathe typing on iPhones and generally switch to my mac or call someone when a text conversation goes beyond 2-3 messages. So I guess emoji is for that? I still think it's something kids do kind of like voicemail is dead but for some reason audio messages via iMessage aren't?

Anyway, cool story and awesome resume item and while I understand they faced great challenges in this, I still think emoji things are effing stupid. What's so hard about just a smiley face?

: -)

You forgot “and get off my lawn”

 

[bjb.butler]

There are about ten emoji I use, occasionally. Who is using all these other emoji? How do they have the time to even scroll through the list to find them?

you can search by name

 

[LinusR]

crazy face, pie, pretzel, t-rex, vampire, exploding head, face vomiting, shushing face, love you gesture, brain, scarf, zebra, giraffe, fortune cookie, pie, hedgehog

This sequence of objects is unheard of in the history of the internet. The set of emojis really is as disjoint as anything.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

Good, now I know who to I will address hate-mail...

In all seriousness, design is hard and I'm sure these were challenging as it's a new paradigm of communication and while unicode is setting that xxxxxxx = smiley poop, bringing text to life is very hard and these are universally understood and transcend language barriers and even culture.

However, I hate emoji. I block people who use and I won't participate. I also don't really use iOS except reading email and news so I don't understand why someone would scroll through thousands of cartoons instead of just typing :thumbs up: with their keyboard.

I think emoji are a result of software keyboards being too slow and crappy over physical ones. Typing on a keyboard is far more efficient and its why it took me so long to give up a Blackberry as my getting things done device. I loathe typing on iPhones and generally switch to my mac or call someone when a text conversation goes beyond 2-3 messages. So I guess emoji is for that? I still think it's something kids do kind of like voicemail is dead but for some reason audio messages via iMessage aren't?

Anyway, cool story and awesome resume item and while I understand they faced great challenges in this, I still think emoji things are effing stupid. What's so hard about just a smiley face?

: -)

Get off your lawn?

 

[ackmondual]

Apple tagline timeline:
There's an app for that
There's a dongle for that
There's an emoji for that