Why is it that on different phone’s, some emojis do not show? Shouldn’t it just register as text?
In: Technology
Emoji is basically a font
Some devices either don’t have that font or do not have the most updated version of the font.
Emoji are part of the Unicode system. In the actual message your phone sends, they’re represented by a number along with a prefix that says “this is Unicode.” When the receiving phone gets a number that starts with this prefix, it knows to go to a library and look up a symbol using that number. Then it displays that symbol. If the phone’s library is missing or incomplete (Unicode is biiig, and it would take a lot of space to store all those pictures), then it shows a blank character, or possibly just the Unicode number it got.
Emojis aren’t the same thing as emoticons like this –> 🙂
To a computer, an emoji isn’t a collection of repurposed characters, but rather a single character in its own right (meaning it gets its own number on the unicode table and everything).
If a computer (or phone, whatever) doesn’t have a graphic related to that specific emoji’s unicode number, then it’s not going to be able to display it. Depending on the software it may have a placeholder graphic like a square or a stylized “?” or something, or it may just not show anything at all.
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