Blob emoji

Range of blob emoji expressions

Blob emoji is an implementation of emojis by Google featured in its Android mobile operating system between 2013 and 2017.

History

Google introduced the blobs, created by Japanese design studio IC4DESIGN, as part of its Android KitKat mobile operating system in 2013 as a way of redesigning the original emojis. Prior to 2013, Android's emojis referenced the Android mascot, which some referred to as "antenna-eared doppelgangers". ^[1]

As Unicode, 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 in favor of circular emojis, designed by Jennifer Daniel, 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.^[2]

Despite their deprecation, Google's Gmail continued to use the blob emojis, as of 2022,^[3] and Google reintroduced the blob emoji in Gboard's Emoji Kitchen feature,^[4] which lets users combine two emojis into one pictograph.^[5] Blobs are also used to represent people in the Noto Emoji font.^[6]

Reception

The blob emoji were a divisive feature between 2013 and 2017. Proponents praised their novel interpretation of emoji ideograms while detractors criticized the miscommunication that results when emoji are interpreted differently across platforms.^[2]

In 2018, Google released sticker packs featuring blob emoji for Gboard and Android Messages.^[7]

References

1. updated, Florence Ion last (July 19, 2017). "From blah to blob: The history of Android emoji". Android Central. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
2. Hern, Alex (May 23, 2017). "Google is killing off Android's emoji blobs". The Guardian.
3. Bonifacic, Igor (March 3, 2021). "Gmail's web client can't handle inclusive emojis properly". Engadget. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
4. Schoon, Ben (June 15, 2021). "Gboard rolling out updated Emoji Kitchen in beta that brings back the blobs". 9to5Google. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
5. "Emoji Kitchen". emojipedia.org. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
6. Li, Abner (April 29, 2022). "Google brings back the blobs with simplified, black-and-white 'Noto Emoji' [Gallery]". 9to5Google. Retrieved May 29, 2024.
7. Garun, Natt (July 17, 2018). "Google revives blobs, its correct emoji, as sticker packs on Gboard and Android Messages". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 27, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2019.

Further reading

• Brant, Tom (May 19, 2017). "The End Is Near for Google's Blob Emoji". PC Magazine. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
• Carey, Bridget (April 19, 2016). "As Apple paints MacBook pink, Android's emoji blobs get a makeover". CNET. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
• Garun, Natt (July 17, 2018). "Google revives its blob emoji as sticker packs on Gboard and Android Messages". The Verge. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
• Garun, Natt (May 25, 2017). "Google's blob emoji are great and no one will convince me otherwise". The Verge. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
• Goldman, David (May 18, 2017). "Google kills its hideous blob emojis". CNNMoney. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
• Mix (May 18, 2017). "Google is redesigning its awful blob emoji for the new Android O". The Next Web. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
• Kircher, Madison Malone (May 17, 2017). "Google's Blob Emoji Get Sad, Circular Redesign". Select All. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
• Stinson, Elizabeth (September 1, 2017). "Say Goodbye to the Blob. Google's New Emoji Have Arrived". Wired. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
• Tibken, Shara (May 18, 2017). "Google's emoji to get much needed redesign in Android O". CNET. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
• Welch, Chris (July 17, 2017). "Google is using the impending death of its blob emoji to promote Allo". The Verge. Retrieved July 20, 2018.

External links

• Media related to Blob emoji at Wikimedia Commons