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Emoji join Dali and van Gogh in New York's MoMA
You might think of emoji as a lowbrow form of communication, but according to MoMA, it's art. The museum added the original 176 emoji, developed by Shigetaka Kurita for Japanese pagers in 1999, to its collection. "With the advent of email in the 1970s ... the conveyance of tone and emotion became both harder and more urgently important," MoMA design specialist Paul Galloway wrote. "When combined with text, these simple images allow for more nuanced intonation."
Google Hangouts adds emoticon shortcuts for easy table-flipping
The latest version of Google Hangouts for Android (and the Chrome extension for Windows) adds something clever to your chatting experience: 20 new hidden emoticon shortcuts so you can properly express all those shruggie feelings and table-flipping rage moments. Less exciting than a quick way to add "deal with it" guy to your chat logs, the v13 update also adds an in-app browser for web links.
Twitter's promoted stickers invade UK feeds
Playing its part in the ongoing game of shameless social network feature copying, Twitter launched stickers for all users last month. These let you spice up your pictures with emoji and other cartoony overlays before posting them, and you can also search by sticker to see what others are doing with them. It took all of five minutes for Twitter to suck the fun out of the feature, though, as Pepsi became the first brand to shell out for promoted stickers. And now Brits can feature in quarterly ad revenue statistics, too, with the launch of promoted stickers in the UK.
Unicode's next emoji update focuses on gender and jobs
The latest proposed updates to Unicode's emoji rules add a handful of dual-gendered jobs and give basically every human emoji both male and female versions, Emojipedia reports. Those two ladies dancing in bunny ears? Now there's a male version. The policeman's face? Emoji 4.0 adds a female option. The beta of iOS 10 already showcases these changes, despite the fact that Emoji 4.0 is still in draft form for two more months, during which period the public can provide feedback to Unicode.
Tinder says GIFs and emoji lead to better connections
Who knew that the secret to successful online dating lay in GIFs? The next time you find yourself spending an hour coming up with the perfect greeting and introduction on Tinder, stop and find a GIF instead. According to Tinder's research, GIF messages are 30 percent more likely to receive a response than non-GIF ones.
Twitter's first promoted stickers come from Pepsi
You knew it was just a matter of time before Twitter's stickers became advertising vehicles. The social network has just introduced promoted stickers, which help brands get their message out through the same searchable 'visual hashtags' that you might already be slapping on your photos. Pepsi is the first to embrace the concept, and it'll offer 50 of the emoji you've seen on bottles and cans (see above) as stickers across 10 regions.
Microsoft just changed its toy gun emoji to a real pistol
Looks like Microsoft and Apple may not be on the same page about firearm emojis afterall. Right after Apple changed its gun emoji to a water pistol in iOS 10, Microsoft replaced its toy pistol emoji with an actual revolver.
Google's iOS GIF keyboard now supports more languages
GBoard, Google's kooky iOS keyboard that lets you push GIFs and emoji to your friends is getting a multilingual update. Starting today, the service will now work in French, German, Italian and Spanish as well as Portuguese and its Brazilian dialect. If that list includes your native tongue, you don't even need to do anything as GBoard should detect your phone's default language and switch to it. The update also adds smart GIF suggestions, so if you type out a recognizable keyword, such as party, then party-themed GIFs will be but a single tap away. Oh, and if GBoard's standard light theme doesn't go with your apps, no worries, as it now has a dark option to remain en vogue.
Apple drops the gun emoji for a friendlier water pistol
The news is awash in the shootings of police officers and unarmed black men, and individuals opening fire in nightclubs and public party events. In an effort to stop promoting gun violence, Apple is replacing its gun emoji with a friendlier-looking water pistol. In place of the old black and silver revolver is a bright green and orange water gun that looks very distinctly like a harmless toy.
Twitter's Snapchat-like stickers are now available to all
After announcing its intentions late last month, Twitter has finally jumped on the sticker bandwagon. The company announced it has completed the rollout of its "visual spin on hashtags," allowing you to furnish your photos with strategically-placed emoji and other custom-made cartoons. They're searchable too, just in case you want to see other people's crazy creations.
SwiftKey's first Microsoft-era keyboard predicts your emoji
Wondering what SwiftKey has been up to ever since Microsoft bought it early in the year? It's not necessarily what you'd expect: meet Swiftmoji, a predictive emoji keyboard app for Android and iOS. The software uses both the context of what you're typing and worldwide trends to suggest emoji when you've decided text just isn't enough. They're a bit like iOS 10's suggestions, only with a culturally savvy bent. Swiftmoji will offer "queen" and "bee" if you're raving over the latest Beyoncé single, for example. If you regularly venture beyond the basic emoji, this might save you some time digging through 1,800-plus emoji to find the perfect picture.
Google's emoji for working women get thumbs up from Unicode
Back in May, Google proposed a set of emoji that would offer options that depict careers of professional women with a range of races and ethnicities. Today, the company announced that Unicode, the organization that (among other things) handles the decisions for all things emjoi, agreed to 11 new professional options that showcase a range of jobs for both men and women. And yes, they'll be available in all of the existing skin tones. This means that the group adds more than 100 new emoji to the existing Unicode library.
Mozilla made a game to teach you the basics of encryption
Sure, people will tell you that encryption is important to maintaining your online privacy, but how do you wrap your head around the concept? Mozilla wants to help. It's introducing a web-based game, Codemoji, that illustrates how ciphers work through emoji. Type in a phrase and Codemoji will both shift the letters and replace them with emoji. The challenge, as you might guess, comes when you get your friends to guess the meaning without turning to the Codemoji website. Mozilla stresses that you shouldn't use this as an honest-to-goodness secure communication system (it isn't). However, it should illustrate just why you'd want to protect your chats -- if your friends can't easily read your data, spies and thieves can't either.
Twitter's searchable stickers can add pizzazz to your photos
Post a lot of photos to Twitter but feel like they're lacking something? Twitter's changing that with today's announcement of #Stickers, which will let you spice up your pictures with props, emoji and more.
Apple and Microsoft reportedly vetoed a rifle emoji
Like it or not, emojis are permeating our vocabulary and fast becoming one of the primary ways people communicate. But if you were looking to convey your thoughts on rifles or hunting, you're out of luck.
Google's GIF-searching Gboard app is now available in the UK
Although Google often includes the UK in launch plans for a new product, its new web-searching and GIF-finding Gboard extension wasn't one of them. But now that the app has been out for roughly a month, Google has had more enough time to get it ready for the British public. That's right, Google's slick third-party keyboard is now available to download in the UK.
Now advertisers can target users who tweet a certain emoji
As much as we debate new Twitter features that affect users, in its pursuit of revenue the company is constantly courting advertisers. Its latest gambit capitalizes on that oh-so-popular element of modern conversation and 2015 "word" on the year: the emoji. Now, advertisers can target more than just specific words in tweets, they can also cite particular emoji to find users they believe will be receptive to their pitches. In other words, use the pizza emoji in a tweet and expect an ad from Dominos or someone similar coming your way soon. Twitter also says it can serve up users "based on their expressed sentiment" and "based on their passions." We're not sure what this will mean for the eggplant or 💯 emoji, but users will probably find out soon enough.
Apple beefs up Messages with a slew of new features
Apple announced at its WWDC keynote today that it is drastically changing the way its Messages app operates. Don't worry -- that's a good thing. Users will now be able to add a bunch more context to their conversations beyond colorful language.
Recommended Reading: The Golden State Warriors' tech training
Golden State Warriors use tech to their on-court advantage Terry Collins, CNET The Golden State Warriors set an NBA single-season record this year with 73 wins and are currently facing the Cleveland Cavaliers for the championship. Part of the reason for that success can likely be attributed the team's use of tech to track player performance and physical activity. CNET has the story on all the gadgetry and how the Warriors are using it to ensure they continue their winning ways.
Unofficial Belgian beer emojis use the appropriate glassware
As craft breweries explode in popularity across the US, more and more people want to express their love of specialty beers in the form of emojis -- rather, emoji. There's just one standard beer emoji (plus a "cheers" emoji that uses the same image) on Android and iOS, even though there are more than 100 styles of beer, some of which are meant to be served in specific ways. Here's where the Belgian Brewer's Association comes in. The group's latest marketing scheme is an iOS and Android emoji board featuring 60 tiny images of Belgian beers, all served in their appropriate glasses.
