[subego]

I'm not sure how widespread this knowledge is, but every iPhone has built in emoticons as part of the Japanese character set. There are paid apps to enable it, but there's also a free one.

The main downside is they'll only show up as graphics on an iDevice, which is a pretty severe limit (and explains why you may not be seeing any examples).

Once enabled, have at it in your texting, emails, etc. 


There are a few minor downsides. It's Japanese focused, so there are some emoticons (emoji) which have limited application to a western audience. Likewise, it's missing some choices which would be obviously useful.

This isn't all bad, because you get ones like this .

Another downside is it messes around a bit with your auto-fill. After you use one, the auto-fill will disengage, and you'll have to start manually entering apostrophes, etc. This usually clears itself up by your second apostrophe. This problem is much improved on iOS 4. It's almost non-existent.

The smallest issue is it turns your "123" key into two smaller keys. One for numbers and symbols, and one to switch to the emoji keyboard. This takes getting used to.

Otherwise, it's fantastically useful. 

[Oisín]

The main downside is they'll only show up as graphics on an iDevice, which is a pretty severe limit (and explains why you may not be seeing any examples).

… including here on MacNN, apparently.

(I’ve always been rather puzzled as to why the iPhone doesn’t have regular smiley options. Even my by now almost six years old Sony Ericsson phone automatically converts smilies. Seems an odd thing to leave out)

[Spheric Harlot]

I find it rather more surprising that other devices don't support emoji.

They won't just work on iDevices, but on any Japanese phone, as well - but not, apparently, on any that are sold abroad.

The iPhone will SHOW emoji just fine without having them enabled, btw. You just cant use them yourself.

Also, including one in an SMS will reduce the character count from x/160 to x/70 for some reason. Not sure if this is a bug in the counting, or a limitation of using emoji.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

… including here on MacNN, apparently.

You should be able to see them fine if you view the site with an iPhone or an iPad.

[Oisín]

^ Yes, but that would require viewing MacNN on my iPhone, something I usually try to avoid for the sake of my sanity.

Also, including one in an SMS will reduce the character count from x/160 to x/70 for some reason. Not sure if this is a bug in the counting, or a limitation of using emoji.

It’s because it will bump the character encoding up to full Unicode (’cause the emoji characters are out of range of the standard SMS encodings), meaning each character takes up twice as many bytes.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

^ Yes, but that would require viewing MacNN on my iPhone, something I usually try to avoid for the sake of my sanity.

I only view the site on an iPhone or iPad.

Uh-oh...

[turtle777]

People still use emoticons ?
[yes, teh irony]
-t

[Spheric Harlot]

Har har.



[ort]

Ack, I signed in with this goofball account!

[ort888]

You can do cool stuff like this with them.

[Oisín]

Heh, that’s neat. But someone seriously has too much stuff on their iPhone there.

[ort888]

That's my phone, and yes, I have a problem. The next page looks exactly the same, but is full of games I never play.

I've never even used the majority of those apps for more than a minute or two... but whatever. It's not like they are in the way.



I need to go on that show Hoarders... only I would be on there for iPhone apps.

"okay, how about this Sushipedia app, surely you can throw this away... right"

"whoa, whoa whoa... you don't know. I could be out for sushi and..."

"when was the last time you went for sushi?"

"uh, you know, 6 months ago I think, but you know, what if..."

"couldn't you just redownload it?"

"yeah but, but, look, KEEP IT. IT GOES IN THE KEEP PILE, you and all your GOT JUNK nazis just get out of my HOUSE! NOW!"

[subego]

Originally Posted by ort888 

You can do cool stuff like this with them.

 white space



[subego]



[subego]

Originally Posted by ort888 

You can do cool stuff like this with them.

You know, I never mentioned how great of an idea this is. Thanks for the tip! 