A Part Of Our World: Samsung Expands Emoji Repertoire Including a Disney Touch

“You can quack up your friends by chatting as Donald Duck, or go classic Mickey or Minnie Mouse using the latest Galaxy phones which use facial recognition and deep learning to map over 100 facial features and transform you into these characters.”

Originally meaning pictograph, the word emoji comes from Japanese e (絵, “picture”) and moji (文字, “character”). Since the emergence of emojis as a way to express oneself through images, mobile devices have expanded the selection of these memetic messages and their popularity continues to be a pervasive force, exemplified by the Oxford Dictionary naming the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji as the word of 2015.

Following this cultural phenomenon, Samsung recently announced the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are adding more than 200 new emojis, like a curling stone and a cute t-rex.

Samsung’s AR (augmented reality) emojis will also now come with a touch of Disney magic. You can quack up your friends by chatting as Donald Duck, or go classic Mickey or Minnie Mouse using latest Galaxy phones, which use facial recognition and deep learning to map over 100 facial features and transform you into these characters. Users can also create their own personal My Emoji avatar and other, albeit less famous, cartoons.

The My Emoji feature also enables users to create and share customizable GIFs and stickers, which run in a AGIF format, making them compatible with all smartphones. Third-party applications also support My Emoji stickers through the Samsung keyboard, and thanks to a recent partnership with GIPHY, the sharing of GIFs is expedited.