We ♥ Emoji

Rerun: The first ever emoji set, including the earliest incarnations of 🍷, ❤️, and 💩, was released in Japan on 1st November, 1997. But the only users could send and receive them were owners of a now-forgotten ‘SkyWalker’ handset made by J-Phone. ☹️ Emoji didn’t truly transform written communication in the West until some fourteen years later, when emoji keyboards came by default on iPhone (Android users, incredibly, had to wait until 2013 🤯). In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss how unloved 1990s font Wingdings paved the way for graphical communication; ponder whether emojis can be used in legal contracts; and reveal how an obscure internal bulletin board at a University helped to create the smiley, and its opposite, ‘the frowny’... There are NINE MINUTES more of emoji-based bantz available exclusively to our Patreon subscribers*. What was the OED's Word of the Year, 2015? What are our team's most-used emojis? And does 🙏 represent high-fives, or prayers? Find out now at https://patreon.com/Retrospectors (*top two tiers). Further Reading: • ‘Correcting the Record on the First Emoji Set’ (emojipedia, 2019): https://blog.emojipedia.org/correcting-the-record-on-the-first-emoji-set/ • ‘History of Emoticons and Emoji’ (ThoughtCo, 2019): https://www.thoughtco.com/emoticons-and-emoji-1991412 • ‘A Brief History of Emoji’(The Open University, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tTXLuZHYf4 ‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’ Each Thursday and Friday we repeat stories from our archive of 800+ episodes, so we can maintain the quality of our independent podcast and bring you fresh, free content every Monday-Wednesday… … But 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴members get an additional full-length episode each Sunday! Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices