Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"Apple has issued a store-wide take-down order to all App Store products that offer Emoji support, Ars has learned. Emoji icons are part of the device's Japanese language support and not meant for general use around the world. Emoji is disabled by default and hidden on all phones outside of Japan."

I still don't understand why they won't allow this "officially" on the iPhone. I have had since this article appeared here at Apple Thoughts and my family has had a great time sending various icons back and forth. From what I understand, Apple is having all the apps that allow the emoji removed, but if you already have it, it will continue to work. That is, I guess, until the next iPhone update removes it.

"I went ahead and submitted Freemoji to the App Store under the assumption that if one application had already made it there that clearly affects this preference, the precedent had been set for another. And yes, I made sure to note so in the application description as a free alternative, figuring that the weight of precedent might help get it through. As already mentioned, Apple thought otherwise. The application was rejected for its ability to make changes outside the application's container area. As Apple wrote in its rejection, iPhone applications are restricted to reading and writing within their sandbox. Sandboxes define a limited set of unique files and folders which are allocated to each application."

Apple really needs to lighten up. All this app did was automate a process that we detailed here a few weeks ago. Instead, because of the silliness of sandboxes and such, Freemoji got rejected. It's not like we're talking about changing important system files or other obvious system-related features. They're emoticons, and yet Apple seems hell-bent on making sure they aren't available in the United States or anywhere else outside Asia. I just don't get it.

"Got an amazing link today from Ashot about this application that will allow you to send Japanese emoji icons to anyone with an iPhone - without hacking it! You all know I won't jailbreak my iPhone :)

Anyways, it's really simple. This is all you need to do:

#1. Get this $0.99 app called frostyplace from the iTunes store [ link ]

#2. Play with the app for a minute to activate, click on a story, etc

#3. Go into you settings -> General > International > Keyboards > Japanese

#4. Click the Emoji option to on!

#5. Text anyone with an iPhone and they'll get your icons!"

Well, I did it and it worked like a charm. Emoji icons are just one more thing that I don't get the regional restriction on. Are Japanese people the only folks who may want to send a smiley every now and then? Anyway, Justine notes that if you don't get the option for the Emoji keyboard right away, you may have to click around in the Frostyplace app for a bit to get it to become available, but once it does, you're golden. Fun stuff!