Google is finally replacing its bad emoji blobs in Android O

 

Personally, I’ve always found one of the worst aspects of using a Nexus or Pixel smartphone to be getting stuck with Google’s bad, default emoji. Emoji intended to represent people look more like thumbs. Or, in the words of The Verge’s Megan Farokhmanesh, they resemble “normal emoji that melted.” Or Dots candy or something. I feel a slight anxiety when l include what should be a fun, cheerful emoji in my texts to friends who have iPhones or Samsung phones. which display more regular emoji. What will it look like to them? Must I pull up some chart to see?

Google finally got the message that these emoji suck. Okay, “suck” is a little harsh. I’m sure some of you like them. But they’ve always been a little too offbeat when other phone makers offer emoji that mostly look similar. Google tried to tone things down a little and restore normalcy with Android N, but it wasn’t enough. So this time the company decided to start over and make things right for Android O.

 

Fast Company has a behind-the-scenes look at the redesign process, which apparently took 18 months. Somehow this revelation went unmentioned on stage, where it was only briefly stated that you’ll be able to download your own emoji sets and custom fonts in O. So if you don’t like these, hopefully you’ll be able to switch back rather easily. But the emoji seen above are the new system default. 

You can get the new emoji yourself if you install the beta release of Android O. Do you dislike the blobs enough to put up with random beta bugs? I just might. If not, you’ll get them when the OS update is officially released later this summer. 

The article was published on : theverge