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A research paper to be officially published in the聽The聽10th International Conference AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media ( ICWSM-16 ) investigates the potential for miscommunication across various smartphone platforms because of differences in the emoji sets.
By tech2 News Staff / 11 Apr 2016 , 14:49
) investigates the potential for miscommunication across various smartphone platforms because of differences in the emoji sets. While there are dictionaries for words, emojis do not have a standard, and the design of the emojis to be rendered are left to the manufacturer. Because of widely different sets used in Samsung, Apple, Google, Microsoft and LG, people may end up having interpretations of a message that is drastically different from the intended message. There are even differences in emoji on the same platform,聽depending on the聽versions of the OS.
Researchers聽surveyed people by asking them to describe the emoji of various platforms in words. They compared the textual descriptions to calculate the degree of differences, and the sources of misinterpretation.聽Minor visual changes, of two raised hands held up with fingers being closer together would appear as a “stop” whereas the same emoji on another platform with the fingers more spread out appeared as “praise”. Finally, there was also considerable difference in the interpretation of the same emoji on one platform, ranging from negative to positive. The differences in emoji across platforms, and within the platform is most apparent in the grinning face emoji.
One of the suggestions of the study is to have a convergent design for emoji across all manufacturers for more uniformity, as against a divergent approach in order to stand out or as a branding exercise.
Tags: Apple, Emoji, emoji interpretation, Google, LG, Microsoft, Samsung