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Samsung's emoji chat app helps people with language disorders
It seems like emoji has become a language of its own, but each symbol is really a stand-in for a wide array of thoughts and emotions. This shorthand can be useful for someone who struggles to digest written words -- like those with aphasia, a language disorder that impedes people's ability to read, talk and write. To help this group, Samsung developed Wemogee, a chat app that translates written phrases into emoji bursts to enable fluid conversation.
Recommended Reading: Beats 1 is a powerful music marketing tool
Blink-182 and Apple Music Team up to Show Off Increasing Reach And Power of Beats 1 Steve Baltin, Forbes Beats 1 has been a key selling point since Apple Music's launch. The internet radio station boasts a number of big names and includes a slate of shows hosted by the artists themselves. Even if you don't have your own show like Dr. Dre, Drake or Run the Jewels, debuting new music with Zane Lowe can do wonders for your hype train. Forbes details the power of Beats 1 through the lens of rockers Blink-182. The Verge also has a look at how the platform helped catapult Drake's latest album to the top of the streaming charts.
Telegram's voice calls are secured by emojis
Questions about security have plagued messaging app Telegram recently, since the platform was supposedly cracked by Russia's state security agency during the election. Telegram uses its own security protocols instead of more tried-and-true options, which has been a point of criticism. Now, Telegram is adding voice calls to its offerings, and those calls will be secured by emojis.
48 new emojis are coming to your phone this summer
Near the end of last year, we got word that new emojis were on the way. With that announcement came a list of 51 proposed emojis that would come with the upcoming release of Unicode 10.0. That lineup has been pared down to 48, and as Emojipedia notes, they'll be available to use beginning on June 30th.
Giphy's latest app is exclusively for animated stickers
When is a GIF not a GIF? Well, when it's pronounced JIF, for one; but also, when it's actually a sticker. Blurring this boundary is lord of the looping image Giphy, which recently introduced a neat, educational set of signing GIFs -- or a new toolkit for creating complex reaction memes, depending on how you look at it. Getting back to tomfoolery, the company is launching Giphy Stickers today.
GBoard on Android catches up to iOS with GIF, emoji suggestions
It took around seven months for Google's GBoard to arrive on Android after its iOS debut. Following that tradition of tardiness, today's update adds features to the Android version that've been available on Apple devices since launch. Most notably, emoji and GIF suggestions that appear as you're banging out a text message to a pal -- even for languages read right-to-left. While those are all well and good, there are a few other new bits as well like improved voice-to-text, custom keyboard backgrounds and quick translation. Again, this is stuff that's been in the iOS version for awhile, but that shouldn't stop the Android faithful from appreciating them.
Google is making Allo chats a lot more animated
If you've been sad at how Allo manages your GIFs and emojis, a new upgrade for the mobile-only chat app is here on Android. Today's update brings an easier way to access GIFs, 10 new animated emoji and a shortcut to Google Assistant.
Google adds voice typing, Doodles and more emoji to Gboard on iOS
Google's powerful Gboard app might now be on Android, but it's the iPhone version that is receiving most of the updates. As part of its most recent overhaul, the search giant has extended support to 15 new countries*, and also added a number of new features that make it easier to say what you have to say. As of now, users have access to all of the latest emoji in iOS 10. If you don't remember, one of the most useful Gboard features is the ability to search and find the perfect emoji, allowing you to decorate texts and emails without scrolling through endless lists of icons.
Lawmaker: Chile and Texas don't share a flag, y'all
The current roster of emojis includes many national flags, but not state-specific ones. So, left with few other options, people have taken to using the Chilean flag emoji (🇨🇱) to signify Texas pride. This makes sense considering how much the two flags look alike, but one Texas lawmaker has had enough.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 24: The Biggest Lie
Senior editors Edgar Alvarez and Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O'Brien to discuss the biggest stories of the week, including Facebook's Journalism Project and the Emoji takeover of Monopoly. Then they'll talk about Volkswagen's massive settlement and pending indictments. Plus they'll try to recap Dieselgate without messing up the timeline.
You can vote for emoji to replace the current Monopoly tokens
Hasbro is no stranger to taking votes on new Monopoly tokens, but this time around everyone's favorite tiny images are among the options. Between now and January 31st, you can select which of the 56 new game pieces you would like to see make the cut. Yes, you can vote for any of the current tokens to remain or replace them entirely as you make your picks for the final 8. The company plans to announce the results of the public vote on World Monopoly Day that takes place on March 19th.
In 2016, emoji kept it 💯
In addition to everything else that happened in tech this year, something small, cute and unassuming wormed its way into your smartphone, your social network and even your MacBook keyboard. While emoji have been around a while, this was the year these pictographs firmly lodged themselves into our lives. It's become less like immature shorthand and more like another language.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 19: Simply the Best
In this week's episode guest host Devindra Hardawar is joined by managing editor Dana Wollman and senior editor Chris Velazco as they run through the biggest winners of 2016. While it might have been a rough year for our musical legends, it was a pretty solid one for Netflix and Tesla. Heck, even in the throes of a growing fake news crisis, Facebook managed to have more wins than loses. And, once they've finished listing off all the ways emoji are taking over the world, they'll look at some of the best gadgets of 2016.
'Emoji Movie' can probably fit its script in a single tweet
Listen: Nobody had high hopes for a movie based on language-abbreviating conversational images. In fact, it's probably against their broad-strokes ambiguity to give them life and personality in a film. But The Emoji Movie is coming in August 2017 and we all have to deal with that by watching the film's first trailer and queuing up our collective sighs.
2016: The year in winners and losers
2016 was an interesting one, that's for sure. To celebrate its quickly approaching end, we're going to spend the next two weeks looking back at the most important story lines of the year -- starting with the biggest winners of 2016. (Don't worry, next week we'll be taking shots at the biggest losers.) Over the next six days Engadget will take stock of who is entering 2017 in a much better position than in 2016. Facebook for one, has started to really pull away from its social media competitors, despite its struggles with fake news. And, after years of being promised that VR or AR would go mainstream, 2016 finally seems to have delivered. Oh, and we also saw emoji evolve from a bunch of silly pictures into a full-fledged language of its own -- one that represents the diversity of our society. So stay tuned through December 31st as we run down the biggest winners and losers of 2016. Check out all of Engadget's year-in-review coverage right here.
Tweet emoji at Google, get directions to nearby tacos
Add emoji to the many languages Google can understand. Starting today, if you tweet an emoji at Google, the company's Twitter account will reply back with a link to a relevant local search result and a celebratory GIF.
Android 7.1.1 is rolling out now
Google's excellent Pixel phones launched with Android 7.1, a minor update to Nougat that nevertheless included a few handy features. Now, Google has announced that Android 7.1.1 has started rolling out to other Android phones and provide a lot of those features to more users. Specifically, the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus Player, Pixel C and General Mobile 4G (Android One) will all start getting the latest version of Android soon.
Google Allo will up your weak emoji game
According to Google's announcement for Allo's latest features, people only use three percent of all emojis available. Well, the Allo team don't want their creations to go to waste, so they've launched "Smart Smiley" to make sure you discover emojis you won't typically use. When you tap on the Smart Smiley button while you're typing a message, the chat app will conjure up a list of suggestions based on context clues. It could suggest the burger, noodles, curry or cutlery emoticons when you type the word "food," or the alligator emoji when you type "later," sort of like what happens in iOS 10's Messages app. The feature can make suggestions before you even type anything based on your conversation history.
New emoji will include a woman with a headscarf
Unicode, the controlling group behind the emojis populating our phones and computers, has been working to make emoji more diverse in recent years. A whole host of skin colors have been added, and Google recently proposed adding more options for working women. In the latest draft of new proposed emoji for Unicode 10.0, there's another sign of the times: the next emoji release should include a woman wearing a headscarf (known as a hijab when worn by Muslim women).
See the Face Palm and 'Harambe' emojis on iOS for the first time
Apple's developer preview of iOS 10.2 offers the first look at a handful of fresh emojis, including Shrug, Avocado, Face Palm, Duck, Fox, Fingers Crossed and Gorilla (AKA Harambe), as spotted by Emojipedia. The preview is available today for registered developers and it also includes the lineup for Emoji 4.0, the overhaul that adds male and female versions of most jobs to the official Unicode rulebook, plus expands skin tone options across the board. The update means male dancers wearing bunny ears and female police officers, for example.
