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This doesn't discuss Internet forum software which allowed including "emojis" in text, via small predefined GIF images. Was this a later development? There were

This doesn't discuss Internet forum software which allowed including "emojis" in text, via small predefined GIF images. Was this a later development? There were also instant messengers like ICQ and AIM, but they only came out in 1996/1997, and I don't know whether they had "emojis" from the start.

msephton 3y ago
It's a good point, but my research was specific to Japanese emoji, given they invented the word and their symbols are the ones that were adopted. I'd be interested to read a similar deep dive into forum/ICQ/AIM emoticon history. I only remember them from around year 2000 though I'd been an internet user since 1995.
- msephton 3y ago
  Just checked and phpBB was released in year 2000.
toast0 3y ago
In that timeframe, those were emoticons or sometimes just smileys. Emoji and emoticons have a different background, and have a totally different etymology, despite sharing the first three letters and sharing some subjecy matter. I don't recall seeing much, if any, discussion of emoji until they rose to power towards the end of the 00s.
- cubefox 3y ago
  That's just a terminological difference though. Both solve the same problem by inserting tiny faces into text.
  - layer8 3y ago
    The difference is that with emoticons you could invent your own combinations and variations. Different people would use different variations of basically the same emoticon. You could come up with new ones hat hadn’t been used before. With emojis, you have a fixed set, and it is what it is. Another difference is that emoticons blend in to the text visually. Your eyes aren’t draw to them like they are when you have a paragraph of text with colorful emoji sprinkled in-between, which can be much more jarring.
    - msephton 3y ago
      I know what you mean, but Emoji isn't a fixed set. Unicode is regularly revised and more characters and emoji are added, based on decisions made by the Unicode Consortium: https://blog.emojipedia.org/whats-new-in-unicode-15-1-and-emoji-15-1/ https://blog.emojipedia.org/whats-new-in-unicode-15-1-and-em...
    - cubefox 3y ago
      Depending on forum software and type of instant messenger, end users couldn't include their own emoticons.
      - layer8 3y ago
        We are talking about emoticons composed of and displayed as text characters, like :-) or =D or ^_^.
        toast0 3y ago
        Are we? The thread started out with: > This doesn't discuss Internet forum software which allowed including "emojis" in text, via small predefined GIF images. Which I claimed were not termed emoji at the time. Those were all called emoticons or smileys in that time frame. At least in my neck of the woods.
- msephton 3y ago
  I think this is why the accepted timeline until this week began with the induction of emoji into Unicode, and their inclusion on the iPhone that introduced them to the West. There was a little bit of "oh, mobile phones and pagers" and nobody did any more digging until my blog post.
numpad0 3y ago
Those were parallel developments, but after Google standardized Unicode emoji for use with Gmail and Apple implemented emoji on iOS for Japanese market support, Apple continued to expand emoji set with bunch of smileys and human upper torsos, thereby consuming those emoticons into emojis. I'm not well versed in those part of cultures, but IIUC, yellow smileys and semirealistic humans weren't focus of Japanese emoji implementations, whereas it is in Apple iOS emoji set.

msephton 3y ago

It's a good point, but my research was specific to Japanese emoji, given they invented the word and their symbols are the ones that were adopted. I'd be interested to read a similar deep dive into forum/ICQ/AIM emoticon history. I only remember them from around year 2000 though I'd been an internet user since 1995.

msephton 3y ago
Just checked and phpBB was released in year 2000.

toast0 3y ago

In that timeframe, those were emoticons or sometimes just smileys. Emoji and emoticons have a different background, and have a totally different etymology, despite sharing the first three letters and sharing some subjecy matter. I don't recall seeing much, if any, discussion of emoji until they rose to power towards the end of the 00s.

cubefox 3y ago
That's just a terminological difference though. Both solve the same problem by inserting tiny faces into text.
- layer8 3y ago
  The difference is that with emoticons you could invent your own combinations and variations. Different people would use different variations of basically the same emoticon. You could come up with new ones hat hadn’t been used before. With emojis, you have a fixed set, and it is what it is. Another difference is that emoticons blend in to the text visually. Your eyes aren’t draw to them like they are when you have a paragraph of text with colorful emoji sprinkled in-between, which can be much more jarring.
  - msephton 3y ago
    I know what you mean, but Emoji isn't a fixed set. Unicode is regularly revised and more characters and emoji are added, based on decisions made by the Unicode Consortium: https://blog.emojipedia.org/whats-new-in-unicode-15-1-and-emoji-15-1/ https://blog.emojipedia.org/whats-new-in-unicode-15-1-and-em...
  - cubefox 3y ago
    Depending on forum software and type of instant messenger, end users couldn't include their own emoticons.
    - layer8 3y ago
      We are talking about emoticons composed of and displayed as text characters, like :-) or =D or ^_^.
      - toast0 3y ago
        Are we? The thread started out with: > This doesn't discuss Internet forum software which allowed including "emojis" in text, via small predefined GIF images. Which I claimed were not termed emoji at the time. Those were all called emoticons or smileys in that time frame. At least in my neck of the woods.
msephton 3y ago
I think this is why the accepted timeline until this week began with the induction of emoji into Unicode, and their inclusion on the iPhone that introduced them to the West. There was a little bit of "oh, mobile phones and pagers" and nobody did any more digging until my blog post.

numpad0 3y ago

Those were parallel developments, but after Google standardized Unicode emoji for use with Gmail and Apple implemented emoji on iOS for Japanese market support, Apple continued to expand emoji set with bunch of smileys and human upper torsos, thereby consuming those emoticons into emojis. I'm not well versed in those part of cultures, but IIUC, yellow smileys and semirealistic humans weren't focus of Japanese emoji implementations, whereas it is in Apple iOS emoji set.