Google’s New Android Oreo OS Comes With Brand New Emoji

One of the cool things that Google has brought with the unveiling of the latest version of its mobile operating system (officially designated as Android Oreo) is an overhaul of emoji. Basically, the tech giant is now going for a more flat, old school looking design, instead of its recent “blobby” feel. The result is that the new emoji are made to look a bit more different, as compared to that of other mobile platforms, like Apple’s iOS, for instance.

Google actually already made mention of its intention to redesign its emoji on Android during the I/O annual developer conference held earlier this year. While the redesign plan makes some sense, especially in trying to make these pictograms more consistent in terms of look, it may not be a welcome move for other Android mobile users, especially those who like the blobby versions.

In this day and age, communication comes in so many forms, and we have not even talked about the challenges inherent in trying to overcome language and cultural barriers. But with emoji, you can basically bypass some of those obstacles -- it does not matter which continent you come from, or what age demographic you belong, when somebody sends you a smiley with hearts for eyes, you would know exactly what they were trying to convey.

But even the emoji themselves can suffer some loss in translation, not in the traditional sense, but in terms of consistency with viewed among a wide range of communication devices. For instance, a certain emoji might not display properly when composed from an Android device and then viewed on a recipient iOS device. 

This is where the overhaul on Android Oreo tries to fix some consistency issues. Also, version Oreo comes with 69 new emoji, as included in the recently rolled out Unicode 10 emoji set. These 69 additions focus more on improving the pictogram portrayal of people and gender, plus emoji versions of cool science fiction and fantasy characters and creatures, including the exploding head emoji (because why not). All in all, Android Oreo is basically redesigning over 2,000 emoji, and for those who want to get a glimpse of what they might look like, they can head over to Emojipedia. 

Some may remember that earlier this month, it was reported that the Unicode Emoji Consortium is now reviewing 67 more emoji additions proposed for deployment by 2018, which is again proof that we might be addicted to these pictograms but just don’t know it.