Sprint HTC One: Emojis in 4.4.2

[laffingleigh]

I updated my Sprint HTC One to Kit Kat (4.4.2) a few minutes ago. My impetus was actually the emojis! I opened my stock text app, texted an iphone friend about 7 emojis and asked him to do the same for me (with the same emojis). We both could only see one of the seven emojis--the snowflake. The rest showed up as question marks (him to me and me to him). I thought they were supposed to be cross-compatible? Am I missing something?

UPDATE: I think I found the culprit. I use Google Voice. It wasn't obviously apparent, but I found this line deep in a search forum: "Unfortunately, Google voice does not support unicode characers. Only ANSII. Emoji, which are unicode, are consequently stripped out of the message, leaving behind the diamonds and question marks." Am I reading correctly that this means I would have to turn off Google Voice in order for emojis to send and receive correctly? If so, are there any other great replacements for Google Voice? I love GV for three reasons: can type texts on the computer, can receive texts/voicemails on the computer, keeps a nice catalog of all texts ever sent and is searchable.

 

[kct1975]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

UPDATE: I think I found the culprit. I use Google Voice. It wasn't obviously apparent, but I found this line deep in a search forum: "Unfortunately, Google voice does not support unicode characers. Only ANSII. Emoji, which are unicode, are consequently stripped out of the message, leaving behind the diamonds and question marks." Am I reading correctly that this means I would have to turn off Google Voice in order for emojis to send and receive correctly? If so, are there any other great replacements for Google Voice? I love GV for three reasons: can type texts on the computer, can receive texts/voicemails on the computer, keeps a nice catalog of all texts ever sent and is searchable.

I am not sure how your phone is set-up, but while I do have Google Voice on my phone, I also have the stock HTC Sense text messaging app. I know that when someone sends a text message to my Google Voice number, the text also shows up in my HTC messaging app, and I can even reply to the text in the HTC messaging app, and the reply will show up in the Google Voice app.

So my personal suggestion is that you use the stock HTC Sense messaging app when you want to send and receive Emoji symbols.

Sent from my RCT6378W2

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

I am on Sprint, which allows you to port in your Sprint phone number. In other words, EVERY text message I get is filtered through Google Voice. It's wonderful because I have a copy of every text logged, but that means all of the emoji is stripped. I'd have to remove Google Voice for this to work correctly (which is quite irritating...)

 

[pistos]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

You are correct. Google Voice does not support emojis.

 

[Hydraulic Jack]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

Still no fix for this? HJ

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

No, sounds like it won't get fixed. If you port your text messages through Google Voice, the emojis will be stripped. My understanding is that Google has no intention of fixing this because they are molding Hangouts to be the replacement for Google Voice.

On a personal note, the only big thing in Hangouts that's lacking for me is the cloud storage of texts. If that was happening, then I'd have switched already.

 

[Hydraulic Jack]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

What I dont get is the fact that before the update using swiftkey keyboard the emoji's showed when text was sent (standard htc text app) and received but after the update they only show as text.......What does google voice have to do with it?....HJ

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

Ahh, yes. I know what you're referring to. I don't know technically why that's happening, but that's different than what I was asking about. I was referring to the emojis, which are pictures such as the high heel, the martini glass, the basketball, etc. Things that were not previously available. As far as I know, Google Voice doesn't interfere with emoticons such as "". I think that's just a new OS setting.

 

[Hydraulic Jack]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

Simple emoticons like do not show....They show as only....HJ

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

This is an expected result. This has nothing to do with Google Voice. This is how the upgraded HTC One is setup. I think they got rid of emoticons in exchange for adding emoji.

 

[Hydraulic Jack]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

So I can't even send a smiley of any kind in a text via my keyboard anymore?....HJ

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

Do your text messages get ported through Google Voice?

 

[Hydraulic Jack]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

How would I find that out? HJ

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

You would have to have set that up. I'm assuming not. Here's how to check: www.google.com/voice. Log in. If a copy of all of your texts are showing up there, then you have ported your number through GV.

 

[Hydraulic Jack]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

Nope not using google voice....HJ

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

So, if I understand correctly, the deal is this. The new OS does not turn into anymore. It just puts it as is. That said, a phone that receives might turn that into because that's how the phone works. It has nothing to do with emoji or Google Voice. You can now send emoji, though!

 

[Hydraulic Jack]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

how do I send emoji in a text? Do I have to use another app to do it? It seems kinda stupid to remove simple smileys from texting....

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

I use the stock keyboard from HTC. In the bottom bottom left corner, there is a button that has a smiley face and 12# below it. Hold that button down until you see the smiley face appear. Release it and you have emoji.

 

[Hydraulic Jack]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

I use swiftkey and there is the same button...When I click on a smiley it comes out as .....HJ

 

[laffingleigh]

Re: Emojis in 4.4.2

This is what I see: http://www.droid-life.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/sense-55-3.png. If you're not seeing that, then it's gotta be the keyboard.