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Everyone uses emojis to help brighten up their social media and messages and to also quickly show their emotions.
They are a common feature on both phones and computers, but sometimes emojis don’t always display correctly on computers and instead just show as empty boxes or question marks.
Why does this happen? Why do computers sometimes display emojis as boxes instead of displaying them? In this article, we will look at why this happens and how to stop it.
What Is An Emoji?
Emojis are little pictures that can be included in text and used on social media, websites, or phone messages.
They can add some character and fun to any message and help people express themselves quickly and easily in ways that text can’t always manage.
Many emojis take the form of facial expressions, but there are also emojis for food, places, activities, animals, and symbols.
What Is The History Of Emojis?
The first use of emojis occurred in 1997 when the J-Phone launched in Japan with 90 different emojis.
These were all in black and white and covered a variety of images such as numbers and sports. In 1999, the Japanese phone company DoCoMo created a set of 176 colored emojis.
The popularity of emojis in Japan eventually led to them being adopted worldwide. The first batch of emojis were released in October 2010 and consisted of 722 different emojis.
How Do Emojis Work?
Before we can answer the question of why some emojis are displayed as boxes on computers, we should look at how emojis work and how they are displayed.
Every character that is displayed on a computer has a Unicode allocated to it called a codepoint. This is an industry-standard code and is used by all vendors and manufacturers.
Letters, numbers, special characters, and emojis all have their own unique Unicode. This means that every phone and computer shares the same library of emojis.
Why Do I Get Boxes Or Question Marks Instead Of Emojis On My Computer?
When your computer sees a Unicode, it references it against its database and displays the correct character or emoji.
However, if the code is missing from the computer’s database it can’t display the correct character or emoji and instead shows a question mark or blank box.
This can happen when a new emoji is released and your computer’s database hasn’t been updated yet to include it.
It can take up to a year for a manufacturer to include new emojis and characters in a software update.
Sometimes, it can be the fault of the website or application that you’re using, too. These don’t always have compatibility with all emojis.
How Are These New Emojis Chosen?
As emojis are part of the Unicode standard, getting a new emoji approved for universal use across all platforms and vendors can be a lengthy process.
The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization that maintains the Unicode standard and chooses which emojis to approve.
Every quarter, the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) meets to discuss potential new emojis.
They accept ideas and recommendations from everywhere and everyone but their meetings are not public.
Once the UTC has approved the addition of a new set of emojis, it can take over a year for them to begin appearing on phones and other devices.
How Do I Fix The Emojis On My Computer?
The most important thing you can do is to keep your computer’s software up to date. If you don’t update your computer, then it will be unable to download new emojis when they are released.
The method for updating your computer depends on your operating system.
Updating Windows
In Windows 11, click on the Start button and then Settings. You should see a Windows Update option and then you can select “Check for updates.”
This will get your computer to check if there are any updates available so you can download them.
On Windows 10, after clicking on Settings you then need to choose Update & Security before selecting Windows Update.
Updating Mac
To update your Mac, click on the Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen. From the drop-down menu, select System Preferences and then the System Updates icon.
Your Mac will then check for system updates and allow you to download them if they are available.
Final Thoughts
We discovered that emojis use a Unicode and computers display them by drawing the image from its database.
As new emojis are being released all the time, if your computer isn’t up to date, it won’t have the latest emojis in its database. Always keep your computer up to date so you can have fun with emojis!
