WhatsApp release emojis that look incredibly similar to Apple's

Date
3 October 2017
Above

Via Emojipedia

WhatsApp has created its own set of emojis that are incredibly familiar to anyone who has ever used Apple’s. WhatsApp previously implemented Apple’s emojis across iOS, Windows and Android but released these new icons to their 1.2 billions users in a recent update.

The similarities between WhatsApp’s and Apple’s emojis are huge with only a few noticeable differences: the space invader is now green not purple, the fried egg has two yokes and the characters feature slightly different coloured clothing. This is not the first time WhatsApp has created its own emojis, they were the first to introduce the middle finger icon and briefly added the Olympic Rings. Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia commented that “it appears that the brief for this project may have been take Apple’s emojis, and change them enough so we can call them our own.” However he adds that this may not be a bad thing, considering how averse to change most users can be.

It’s not clear what prompted the update but it’s a move that sees them following in the footsteps of Facebook Messenger, Google and Samsung who have all previously shunned Apple’s emojis in an attempt to be less reliant on third party applications. This change is only adding the cross platform confusion that already exists due to Android manufacturer fragmentation. As the situation currently stands, Facebook and its Messenger app now use one set, WhatsApp uses a second and Instagram uses whatever the default on your phone is.

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About the Author

Ruby Boddington

Ruby joined the It’s Nice That team as an editorial assistant in September 2017 after graduating from the Graphic Communication Design course at Central Saint Martins. In April 2018, she became a staff writer and in August 2019, she was made associate editor.

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