WhatsApp Makes Its Own Unique Emojis – That Look Similar to Apple’s

WhatsApp makes its emoji unique – but they resemble Apple’s

Users of 1 billion WhatsApp receive iOS-style emojis that differ from those of Facebook and Messenger, which adds a general air of confusion between platforms

WhatsApp has created its own emoji range for its more than 1.2 billion users, avoiding those created by Apple, Google and Samsung.

The new icons, first visible in a beta version of their Android application, are almost identical to those created by Apple, which WhatsApp had previously used not only in its iOS application, but also in its versions for Android and Windows. Only a few small differences give the update: for example, the water gun has turned orange, the ghost emoji no longer has exorbitant eyes and the fry egg is now double yolk.

It’s not clear what caused the update, and neither WhatsApp nor its Facebook owner have responded to a comment request, but experts say the app is likely to be following others, including Facebook and Twitter in trying to free themselves from trust in third for emoji design.

“At a glance, these could be confused with Apple’s own emoji,” says Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia, who first took note of the update. “It seems the writing for this project may have been” take emoji from Apple, and change enough so that we can call them ours “. Is that a bad thing? Maybe not, since most users can be averse to change. ”

WhatsApp’s corporate messenger, née Facebook Messenger, has also received its own change of emoji: the application, which previously had its own special emoji library, is now using the images created for the main Facebook application. Unless users are on iOS, in which case they are now using the default iOS emojis.

For those who have lost count, that means that Facebook and Messenger now use a unique set of emoji (unless you’re on iOS), WhatsApp uses a second (if you’re running Android beta) and Instagram uses whatever the default on the phone.

The changes highlight a growing problem for social media services: the confusion of cross-platform communication, driven largely by the fragmentation of Android makers.

By basing your icons so heavily on those already in use on iOS, WhatsApp avoids the worst of the confusion. Typically, an iPhone user sending text messages to a Samsung Galaxy owner, for example, finds that his red flag turns yellow, his prayer beads become a rosary, and his cookie is degraded to two cookies. The same conversation in WhatsApp avoids the problem, since the emojis of Samsung are replaced by the own version of WhatsApp.