Technology website The Next Web had the opportunity to talk to emoji historian (yes, it's a legit profession) Jeremy Burge who is also the founder of Emojipedia. He revealed some interesting details about emoji and the times in which it was deemed controversial.
It's comical, yes, but let's discuss some interesting facts about emoji, shall we?
There's not enough representation of people with glasses
Do we really need more than one nerd face emoji, though? But Burge's said there's a problem when it comes to giving people a wide range of customization. If every messaging app maker gives in to people's demands of giving an emoji the option to wear glasses, they would have to make a lot, especially with the genders and skin tones considered. But adding one emoji with glasses is a problem in itself, too, since users find it inadequate.
The absence of a condom emoji
There have been suggestions to add a condom emoji to promote safe sex. Durex even wrote a letter to the Unicode Consortium so a condom emoji would be added, supposedly a way of promoting safe and protected sex. But the company's proposal was rejected, and other bids to put a condom in a keyboard have been constantly turned down.
According to Burge, the rejection is due to the lack of an agreement between Unicode and the vendors. Suppose Unicode approves some emojis, and some vendors refuse to use it; those emoji won't work on some platforms, which, according to the emoji expert, is a "bad outcome."
Why the pistol emoji disappeared
When Apple rolled out iOS 10 in 2016, it came with it the removal of the pistol emoji. In place was a lime green water gun, which prompted other companies to replace theirs with a redesigned gun emoji as well. The reason? The companies' interest in participating in talks about gun laws.
Burge isn't exactly in favor of the move. Rather, he pointed out what the real issue was in the first place.
"I don't think the approach to change the design of the pistol was the right way to address the very real issue that having a gun on the emoji keyboard worldwide is unnecessary," Burge said.
The Emojipedia creator did appreciate the tech companies' efforts, however, praising them for following Apple's move. And he is right. Imagine having one platform using a gun emoji and another without it. It would give way for a new issue to be addressed.
