“Imoji makes your texts more you,” the app’s website declares. The way it works is straightforward enough: Take a selfie or upload a photo of your choice, crop and edit it, and turn it into a sticker you can include in your text messages.
To be clear, imoji isn’t a standalone messaging app like WhatsApp, KakaoTalk or Line. Rather, it’s an app that links itself to the iOS iMessage app. User-created imojis can be made private or public, the latter being visible to all the app’s users, who can also search through a preexisting selection of imojis set up and shared by other users.
Imoji was tested with 100 “content creators” ahead of its official release as a free iOS app on July 24, and the app boasts thousands of stickers already. Users can expect the app to roll out more features in the future, including an Instagram-like “follow” feature, enabling users to keep up-to-date on their preferred imoji creators. Brands will eventually have the opportunity to sponsor imojis.
“Where we think things are heading is a more flexible and creative form of communication, one which adds a new dimension to a text message,” said creator Tom Smith, formerly of Apple. “We’ve designed imoji to be just that.”
Emojis are getting more diverse, whether we’re ready or not.
