iOS 4 includes Emoji input on Japanese keyboard

AppleInsider

Apple is targeting a feature request from Japanese users in iOS 4 with new support for several dozen "official" Emoji emoticons accessible from the Japanese Romaji keyboard.



After activating the Japanese Romaji keyboard (used to enter Roman-style characters), reader Davide Crudo noted that a new character key appears on the numbers keyboard: the "^_^" smile.



Typing the key inserts a smile emoticon and presents a popup listing of alternatives below it. Clicking the arrow, or hitting space bar to cycle through the options, brings up an editing panel for choosing from around 50 different alternatives that are commonly used in Japan.



Users can flick through the pages of different Emoji character sequences by touch, or cycle through options by tapping the spacebar.



Once entered, an emoticon sequence acts like a regular block of characters. After entering an emotion in Notes, its default Marker Felt font is changed to Helvetica for all text within that note.

ihxo

^_^ they should make it standard for all language.

gvisser

Those are Emoticons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticons



Emoji are the icons and pictures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji



Emoticons are enabled by default, you need an iPhone app, there are free ones, to enable Emoji. My guess is that they are not enabled by default because not all phones display them correctly.

cjlacz

This isn't a few feature, they just made it more accessible. They are called kaomoji in Japanese or face characters. When you'd type it in Japanese かおもじ the same list would appear. You can still do that now too. There have been a few hidden features for the Japanese that Apple could of done a better job of showing to people.

solipsism

Quote:

Originally Posted by gvisser


...you need an iPhone app, there are free ones, to enable Emoji.

I couldn't get my Emoji app to enable it in Settings with iOS 4.0.

hippycowboy

You can also still enable them this way, which results in an Emoji keyboard under International instead of japanese: http://www.waterworld.com.hk/en/spell_number_easter_egg

Quote:

Originally Posted by AppleInsider


Apple is targeting a feature request from Japanese users in iOS 4 with new support for several dozen "official" Emoji emoticons accessible from the Japanese Romaji keyboard.



After activating the Japanese Romaji keyboard (used to enter Roman-style characters), reader Davide Crudo noted that a new character key appears on the numbers keyboard: the "^_^" smile.



Typing the key inserts a smile emoticon and presents a popup listing of alternatives below it. Clicking the arrow, or hitting space bar to cycle through the options, brings up an editing panel for choosing from around 50 different alternatives that are commonly used in Japan.



Users can flick through the pages of different Emoji character sequences by touch, or cycle through options by tapping the spacebar.



Once entered, an emoticon sequence acts like a regular block of characters. After entering an emotion in Notes, its default Marker Felt font is changed to Helvetica for all text within that note.

chronster

My God they've done it. I mean, I know we all had scientists around the world working on this, but I had no idea the Japanese had cracked it. Why wasn't this bigger news? How did this get by me?



It's a whole new world, ladies and gentlemen.

kaz-k

but we can't edit them, can we?

joe hs

Quote:

Originally Posted by solipsism


I couldn't get my Emoji app to enable it in Settings with iOS 4.0.

After the app enables the keyboard it's no longer under Japanese. it's on it's own under Dutch and before English (UK)

melgross

While I like the notes font, I would like to be able to use Helvetica as well. Sigh! Someday.

ranreloaded

This is NO "emoji", ("picture characters") but instead "kaomoji" ("face characters"). The former are one-character wide graphical icons, (akin to emoticons) almost universally compatible accross the three japanese carriers (bar iPhone). The latter are simply combinations of parentheses/punctuation/speciall characters to resemble faces.

nvidia2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by ranReloaded


This is NO "emoji", ("picture characters") but instead "kaomoji" ("face characters"). The former are one-character wide graphical icons, (akin to emoticons) almost universally compatible accross the three japanese carriers (bar iPhone). The latter are simply combinations of parentheses/punctuation/speciall characters to resemble faces.

Yes... This should be clarified in the article to avoid confusion. Love ya, AppleInsider, but those ain't Emoji.

Quote:

Originally Posted by solipsism


I couldn't get my Emoji app to enable it in Settings with iOS 4.0.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe hs


After the app enables the keyboard it's no longer under Japanese. it's on it's own under Dutch and before English (UK)

Yeah it caught me by surprise as well after using the Spell Number app easter egg to enable Emoji. I thought it didn't work, then I saw it as its own keyboard, no longer under Japanese.

doorman.

＼（＾ ＾）／

ascii

They have "official" smilies?

solipsism

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe hs


After the app enables the keyboard it's no longer under Japanese. it's on it's own under Dutch and before English (UK)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nvidia2008


Yeah it caught me by surprise as well after using the Spell Number app easter egg to enable Emoji. I thought it didn't work, then I saw it as its own keyboard, no longer under Japanese.

I still can't access it. This is the app I origianlly bought for Emoji that was working through v2.x and 3.x.

? http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id305589163?mt=8

Is there a free app that enables it in v4.0?

colinh

Quote:

Originally Posted by solipsism


In case you missed it, iPhone OS is now simply "iOS" and Mac OS X is now simply "iOS Development Platform". ~@dsandler

Reading this thread was worth it for that sig alone

woode

Kaomoji: http://www.omgsoysauce.com/10833/jap...what-it-means/



Emoji: http://1800goiphone.com/wp-content/u...emoji1jpg.jpeg



Kaomoji are like smilies, except not sideways. Emoji are actually images, and are accessible on the iPhone from a completely separate keyboard. On non-Japanese iPhones, you need to get one of the free Emoji-enabling apps to use them. (I use this app Emoji Free )And then, it only works with other iPhones or certain japanese handsets that use the same emoji encoding. Luckily, emoji are set to be standardized in Unicode soon. (http://sites.google.com/site/unicode.../emoji-symbols)



Fix the headline, please?

laughing coyote

Emoji (or whatever the right term is) has been available for customers in Japan without a 3rd party app since iOS 2. They just had to have a SoftBank SIM card.



http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2404

justbobf

[QUOTE=gvisser;1661930]Those are Emoticons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticons



Emoji are the icons and pictures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji



But, that page you linked to says the emoji are both emoticons and pictures. Here a the quote from that page: "Emoji (絵文字?) is the Japanese term for the picture characters or emoticons used in Japanese wireless messages and webpages"

nvidia2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by solipsism


I still can't access it. This is the app I origianlly bought for Emoji that was working through v2.x and 3.x.

? http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id305589163?mt=8

Is there a free app that enables it in v4.0?

Try Spell Number if it is still available. I didn't try the above app.

solipsism

Quote:

Originally Posted by nvidia2008


Try Spell Number if it is still available. I didn't try the above app.

Nope, didn't work. However, when I looked for that app in the App Store, the search also listed Emoji Free which was updated just last month, while the app you recommended and the app I previously mentioned haven't been update since 2009, long before iOS 4.0 was present. Emoji Free works perfectly.

? Emoji Free ? http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/emoji...332509635?mt=8