Blob emoji is an implementation of emojis by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

featured in its Android

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on the ...

between 2013 and 2017.

History

Google introduced the blobs, created by Japanese design studio IC4DESIGN, as part of its

Android KitKat Android KitKat is the codename for the eleventh Android mobile operating system, representing release version 4.4. Unveiled on September 3, 2013, KitKat focused primarily on optimizing the operating system for improved performance on entry-level ...

in 2013 as a way of redesigning the original

emojis An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typ ...

. Prior to 2013, Android's emojis referenced the Android mascot, which some referred to as "antenna-eared doppelgangers". As

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

, the group that establishes emoji standards, introduced skin tone and gender options to emojis, they thought that if the people wanted the emojis to have different colors, they would look strange as blobs. Throughout the years, the blobs slowly switched to a more human shape. Google retired the blobs in 2017 with the release of

Android Oreo Android Oreo ( codenamed Android O during development) is the eighth major release and the 15th version of the Android mobile operating system. It was initially unveiled as an alpha quality developer preview in March 2017 and later made ava ...

in favor of circular emojis, designed by

Jennifer Daniel Jennifer Daniel (born Jennifer Ruth Williams; 23 May 1936 – 16 August 2017) was a Welsh actress. Her film appearances included assorted roles in the ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries'' film series, '' Gideon's Way,'' the Francis Durbridge serial ...

, similar in style to that of other platforms. Consistent cross-platform emoji interpretation was among the redesign's primary aims. The redesign, which had been in development for about a year, mimicked an Apple effort to include more detail in the emoji glyph and offer yellow skin tone as the default. Despite their deprecation, Google's

Gmail Gmail is the email service provided by Google. it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also ...

continued to use the blob emojis, as of 2022, and Google reintroduced the blob emoji in

Gboard Gboard is a virtual keyboard app developed by Google for Android and iOS devices. It was first released on iOS in May 2016, followed by a release on Android in December 2016, debuting as a major update to the already-established Google Keyb ...

's Emoji Kitchen feature, which lets users combine two emojis into one pictograph (

sticker A sticker is a type of label: a piece of printed paper, plastic, vinyl, or other material with temporary or permanent pressure sensitive adhesive on one side. It can be used for decoration or for functional purposes, depending on the situation. ...

). Blobs are also used to represent people in the Noto Emoji font.

Reception

The blob emoji were a divisive feature between 2013 and 2017. Proponents praised their novel interpretation of emoji

ideograms An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek 'idea' + 'to write') is a symbol that is used within a given writing system to represent an idea or concept in a given language. (Ideograms are contrasted with phonograms, which indicate sounds of speech ...

while detractors criticized the miscommunication that results when emoji are interpreted differently across platforms. In 2018, Google released sticker packs featuring blob emoji for

and Android Messages.

References

External links

* {{Emoji navbox Emoji typefaces Android (operating system)

History

Reception

References

Further reading

External links