Language is alive – this applies not only to German or English, but also to communication with symbols, also known as emojis. The small faces and gestures fulfill important functions, especially in social media or chats, because a picture sometimes says more than a thousand words. But how an emoji is received by the recipient can vary greatly.
Popular example: Sending a person an eggplant and drops of water, mouths, or tongues is sexting of the most explicit sort, willy-nilly. That’s why it can’t hurt to look at the alternative meanings of the little pictures.
A slide that doesn’t mean a slide
This also affects parts of the 37 newly introduced emojis that are available with the update to iOS 15.4. There are new hand gestures, a few faces, household items and also rather unusual symbols, such as a slide or a troll.
Unmistakably there are few emojis. All recipients probably understand the embracing hands in a similar way, and a saluting face is also relatively clearly defined. Images such as the slide, the empty glasses, many of the hand gestures and even the disco ball could be surprisingly unclear.
+++ Also read: The big Corona update iOS 15.4 is here: unlocking with a mask, vaccination card in the wallet and new emojis +++
So much can be revealed: the mouth that bites its lip, the lotus flower and even the innocent-looking slide could become part of erotic communication in the future – it should be absolutely clear with the mouth, which is why, with the other two symbols you have to make an effort to derive a corresponding meaning.
Culture is crucial
Of particular interest this time is the different meaning of some images, which results from cultural perception: the hand rubbing the thumb on the index finger, for example. Did you know that this can represent a so-called finger heart? This gesture has become particularly popular in South Korean pop culture in recent years and is roughly equivalent to a heartfelt hand.
In Germany it might look different: Here the gesture stands for everything to do with money, regardless of whether you want to signal a high price or generally want to refer to money.
Also worth knowing: The symbols do not always look the same on all devices. For example, if an iPhone user sends the troll to an Android user via Whatsapp, they will both see very different versions of the pictogram. Something like this has led to heated discussions in the past, for example about the correct filling of a cheeseburger. Here the platforms arranged the ingredients differently – which did not appeal to everyone and actually led to changes in the pictures.