Range of blob emoji expressions

Blob emoji is an implementation of emojis by Google featured in its Android mobile operating system between 2013 and 2017.

History

Google introduced the blobs, created by Japanese design studio IC4DESIGN, as part of its Android KitKat mobile operating system in 2013. The next year, Google expanded the blob style to include the emojis that normally depict humans. As an example, instead of a flamenco dancer in Apple emoji style and its derivates, Google's blob style showed a blob with a rose in its teeth. In 2016, Google redesigned the blobs into a gumdrop shape. As Unicode, the group that establishes emoji standards, introduced skin tone and gender options to emojis, Google's emojis progressively appeared more as humans and less as yellow, amorphous blobs. Google retired the blobs in 2017 with the release of Android Oreo in favor of circular emojis, designed by Jennifer Daniel, similar in style to that of other platforms. Consistent cross-platform emoji interpretation was among the redesign's primary aims. The redesign, which had been in development for about a year, mimicked an Apple effort to include more detail in the emoji glyph and offer yellow skin tone as the default.[1] Despite their deprecation, Google's Gmail continued to use the blob emojis, as of 2022,[2] and Google reintroduced the blob emoji in Gboard's Emoji Kitchen feature,[3] which lets users combine two emojis into one pictograph.[4]

Reception

The blob emoji were a divisive feature between 2013 and 2017. Proponents praised their novel interpretation of emoji ideograms while detractors criticized the miscommunication that results when emoji are interpreted differently across platforms.[1]

In 2018, Google released sticker packs featuring blob emoji for Gboard and Android Messages.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Hern, Alex (May 23, 2017). "Google is killing off Android's emoji blobs". The Guardian.
  2. ↑ Bonifacic, Igor (March 3, 2021). "Gmail's web client can't handle inclusive emojis properly". Engadget. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  3. ↑ Schoon, Ben (June 15, 2021). "Gboard rolling out updated Emoji Kitchen in beta that brings back the blobs". 9to5Google. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Emoji Kitchen". emojipedia.org. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  5. ↑ Garun, Natt (July 17, 2018). "Google revives blobs, its correct emoji, as sticker packs on Gboard and Android Messages". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 27, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2019.

Further reading

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