[augusteo]

The Unicode approach seems backwards in hindsight, but I wonder if it was the only practical path forward at the time. Getting Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft to agree on exact pixel-level designs would've been a nightmare. Code points at least let everyone participate without vendor lock-in.

What's interesting is how the market solved it anyway—everyone just converged on Apple's designs because that's what users expected. Not through spec, but through sheer gravity.

[jorvi]

The market hasn't solved it though, there's plenty of emoji where the difference between the Apple / Google / Samsung / Microsoft / Twemoji is divergent enough that it expresses a different sentiment.