Google revives blobs, its correct emoji, as sticker packs on Gboard and Android Messages
You're going to see a lot of emoji today now that the web has declared it the international holiday of celebrating them. But only one set of emoji is worth remotely caring about, and it's the return of the blobmoji on Google.
Yes, technically the blobs live on via Allo, but since the messaging app's development was put on indefinite "hold" back in April, Google's now reviving the blobs as a sticker pack on Gboard and Android Messages. The pack includes stickers that were first introduced with Allo last year, with popular emoji like the wink and grimace and a handful of animated ones from the pre-Android 8.0 era.
And the animals! Look at this joyous, happy little octopus...
... compared to whatever the heck this octopus is supposed to make me feel.
Google killed its blob emoji last year, and it has since replaced them with a standard circular shape (read: generic) to align its offering with emoji from other operating systems. Since then, the blobs have had a slow and sad death. First, they were killed as soon as you updated to Android Oreo. Then, Google wrote this bizarre blog bidding them goodbye and using the blobs as a way to promote the doomed Allo. And earlier this summer, blobmoji began disappearing from the last remaining places, like Google Hangouts on the web.
The sticker packs won't undo the damage done to fans of the blobs, but I suppose it's a half step closer to being able to use emoji you best identify with where they still matter to you.
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