To make the process of adding emoji to our devices more democratic, emoji expert Lilian Stolk created “Emoji Voter,” a web-based app where people can vote for which emoji they’d like to have available on their keyboards.
Similarly to Tinder, Emoji Voter works by swiping through various emoji proposals which have been officially received by the Unicode Consortium. By swiping an emoji left, you’re rejecting the design and its meaning, but by swiping right, you agree that this emoji should be included in the next round of updates.
Once the results are in, they’re sent straight to Unicode who then decide if they’ll appear on our phones one day.
“A handful of people from The Unicode Consortium decide which emoji we can communicate with. Imagine if just a few people would decide what words we can use? It’s very weird that we as users don’t have a voice in this. This is what I want to change with Emoji Voter,” Stolk said…
“As gatekeepers of the language that we all use online, Unicode and their voting members are not consistent in their choices. They state that a new emoji should not be too specific and have the potential to become popular,” Stolk explained. “Then why is there a red-haired emoji and no afro emoji, while there are many more people with an afro worldwide? Why was a period emoji too specific, but there will soon be 70 symbols for people with disabilities? If we continue in this way, within eight years we’ll be scrolling through 5000 emoji. Do we want that? We should think about this better.”
According to Stolk, the most voted emoji will be the hugging and lip biting emoji:
Emoji Voter
MacDailyNews Take: The Emoji Voter web app is available online here.
Using a different mechanism, I have already voted wholesale and deleted the entire emoji keyboard from my iPhone. The result has been strangely liberating.
Liberating? Those gol’ durned emoji had you all oppressed, did they? Don’t think I’ve ever been oppressed by a font. 🙂 What exactly is that like? Wake up in the morning, see a smiley face and instantly just can’t get anything done? Just want to go back to bed?
A 1st world concern that shouldn’t be.
Using a different mechanism, I have already voted wholesale and deleted the entire emoji keyboard from my iPhone. The result has been strangely liberating.
Liberating? Those gol’ durned emoji had you all oppressed, did they? Don’t think I’ve ever been oppressed by a font. 🙂 What exactly is that like? Wake up in the morning, see a smiley face and instantly just can’t get anything done? Just want to go back to bed?