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New Earliest Emoji Sets from 1988 and 1990 Uncovered
In 2019 Emojipedia detailed a historic revelation: Domoco’s i-mode emojis from 20 years prior were not the first to exist. Now, in 2024, further digital excavations have led to the recreation of emoji designs that predate both Softbank’s 1997 emoji set and the ❤-enabled Pocket Bell pagers of 1995.
Credit: Akuji_bwn on Reddit.The nearly 200 emoji-like symbols found within the PI-4000, sized 12x12 pixels, were directly insertable within text and had many conceptual overlaps with the earliest emoji sets added to mobile phones by Softbank and Docomo several years later. Credit: Matt Sephton.As with the 1994 set within the Sharp Zaurus PI-4000, we see representations of people, smileys, foods, activities and games, transport, weather, and the two main Zodiac traditions. Photo: John Wronn at MoMA.That being said, it is entirely possible that even earlier sets could be recovered from other even older devices in the future - as we stated could well be the case when we added the 1997 Softbank emoj to Emojipedia back in 2019.
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