Sunday, April 24, 2016

Emoji cause misconceptions and misunderstandings on different platforms – PianetaCellulare.it

The emoji, those symbols that are often used in emails, sms or chat, to express an emotion or simply to type less letters and write more ‘fast, are changing the way we communicate online. But they can also be confusing, not only because today there are so many different icons that sometimes it is hard to understand the significance, but also because the different platforms that use them to express the same concept show a different image.

new research GroupLens Lab of the University of Minnesota suggests that people often have conflicting interpretations of the exact same emoji – and that differences in how emoji are displayed on a device over another further complicate things.

As reported by the researchers of the study, a large part of the problem is that not all of the emoji are equal. Unicode, the status of the computer industry standard that seeks to unify characters and the text of each emoji, now recognizes more than 1,000 different emoticons. Unicode provides a code and description for each emoji – for example, U + 1F600 is the code for the classic “smiley face”, but the image can ‘be different depending on the manufacturer (Samsung, Apple, Google, etc.) and service providers (Whatsapp, Messenger, etc.).

Therefore, companies like Facebook, Google, Apple and others can use the icon they want to express a code determined by the Unicode standard.

the code U + 1F600 Unicode corresponds to the classical “smiling face”, the Unicode code U + 1F603 corresponds to the “smiling face with an open mouth”, the code U + 1F60E Unicode to the “smiling face with glasses sun “, the code U + 1F60D Unicode to the” smiling face with hearts for eyes “, the code of U + 1F618 at Unicode” face that blows a kiss “, the code U + 1F602 at Unicode” face that laughs and cry from too much laughter, “the code U + 1F60A Unicode to” face that laughs satisfied “:, the code U + 1F609 at Unicode” face that winks. ” Here are some examples of emoji:

Read also: Android Developer Preview 2 N: Vulkan, shortcuts, new emoji

As you can see, some companies are wont to use the same icon to identify a same code – Twitter and Apple use the same icons for the codes U + U + 1F600 and 1F603, for example.

An analysis of the emoji with code U + 1F601 Unicode for “grinning face and smiling eyes, Hannah Miller is the team of those who led the study, he explained that “some have described [the emoji U + 1F601] Google as a face ‘blissfully happy’ and Apple as a ‘ready to face to fight ‘. “

the study looked at 22 different emoji and how they are displayed on smartphones from five different manufacturers – Apple, Google, Microsoft, LG and Samsung. the researchers asked about 300 people to view a random subset of 15 versions of emoji, describe and classify them on a -5 to 5 scale where -5 is a strong negative sentiment and 5 a strongly positive feeling.

on average, respondents thought that Apple’s version of emoji with “grinning face and smiling eyes” means something bad, but Google’s version and other something good.

This difference in visualization and interpretation of moji can ‘then lead to communication problems – if a person with the Samsung smartphone sends an emoji that of an Apple device is shown in a different way, could create misunderstandings.

the solution is intuitive: Unicode should find an agreement with manufacturers and developers to also unify the icons, because “users could only benefit from the design of the unification between the different platforms,” ​​explain the researchers who conducted the survey.

There has never happened some misunderstanding with your contact to have misinterpreted a emoji? Write us in the comments box below.

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