It seems like just yesterday when Google introduced their Android blob emoji in Android 4.4 and it kind of was — 2013. While only four years ago that is a lifetime in the tech space. Android has come a long way since then and now Google are moving forward with an update and redesign of their emojis.
Beginning with Android O Google have changed their emojis to have full compatibility with Emoji 5.0. This includes 69 new emojis along with 183 emoji sequences used for gender and skin-tone variants and subdivision flags. It was only released in March of this year with more details to be found at emojipedia. Google have had the genders and skin tones available for their human emojis since 2016.
Gone is the “gumdrop” shaped emoji of Android, replaced with a circular smiley shape. There have been various changes of the Android emoji over the years but this is most likely a thing of the past as Google now are brought into line with all other operating systems. It has been a bit frustrating when sending an emoji to a user on a different platform and the emoji received was not the same as that sent — this should not happen any more.
I personally like the way the Android emojis were different to those from other operating systems so it is a bit sad to say good-bye to Google’s emoji character. At the same time though it is exciting to see the often life-like emojis that are now possible and if Android is to remain at the front of the pack they must change with the times.
The new emojis at this stage are available in the Android O Beta release and are of course subject to change before the final release of Android O later this year. The final 2017 emoji list can be seen below:
Do you like this change in the emoji or is it a day of reflection on the sad passing of an Android icon, the blob emoji?
I’m a bit shirty about this, I really liked the dumpling emojis. 🙁