A mysterious new emoji has been added by Apple to iOS 9.1 and OS X El Capitan, but unlike the other emoji supported by Apple, this weird new pictogram wasn’t created by the Unicode Authority, and no one knows why it exists.
Apple plans to give emoji the middle finger when iOS 9.1 drops later this year, but it looks like the iPhone-maker has developed its own emoji called “eye in speech bubble,” and no one has any idea what it means.
Check it out:
Emoji expert Jeremy Burge was the first one to spot the new emoji in a developer preview of iOS 9.1 and discovered that it’s created by joining together the standard Unicode characters for eye and left speech bubble — both of which were approved in Unicode 7.
The new emoji is created with a Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ), which Apple has also used for the range of family emojis. What set the new emoji apart is that it wasn’t created by the organization that creates and approves new emoji.
What the new Eye in Speech Bubble emoji means is still anyone’s guess at this point, as Apple hasn’t responded to our requests for its meaning. Some Apple fans on Reddit have speculated that it could be used as an icon for iMessage (get it? EyeMessage), or maybe iOS 9.1 and El Capitan will use it to signify when a message has been seen/read.
Got a better idea what the new emoji will be used for? Drop your theories in the comments below.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
21 responses to “Apple created a mysterious new emoji and no one knows why”
Illuminati, what else.
..
I left a message? It has the eye for ‘I’, the left speech bubble for ‘left message’… It works!
Emoji expert?…My god, do you even hear yourself? Under that logic, i declare myself from now on as the “Slide to unlock” expert…It’s just sliding a finger, but it’s more complex than you think.
Exactly…emoji expert aaahahahahahaha
How about “Call, text or come see me”.
iMessage…
LOL…
Errr… I see what you are saying/what you mean?
some type of hybrid between FaceTime and iMessage?
Emoji “expert” HAHAHAAAAAA!!!
maybe its for that annoying behaviour when you send someone a message, you see the “typing dots” bubble appear, then see it disappear without a message coming through. as if to say: “i saw you started to say something but didn’t… what’s up with that??”
The ones from the comments I liked:
“iMessage”
“I see you typing.”
“Watch what you say/type.”
“I see what you’re saying.”
DC Comics comes to Earth Prime. Apple releases emoji that turns iMacs into OMACs.
if you see sth, say sth
The ancient Egyptians are watching you
iMessage! “Eye message? Get it?” -them
Now it make sense why you called it iPhone, iPad iMac etc. “Eye phone, Eye pod, Eye Mac, Eye phone”! The apple…the bitten Apple that represents sin! Illuminati confirmed..
Once it’s released, Siri will be able to tell us with text to voice options. “Smiling Face of Poo”
Maybe it’s for FaceTime, cause it uses the iSight Camera? Or it could be like a video voicemail kind of thing…
eye’m tired of talking
They are going to be selling Macs at Target soon?