Forget the iPhone, Microsoft Releases New Emoji to More Windows Phones

Oh, the irony… it hurts. Microsoft has nearly abandoned Windows phones and while users still sticking with the platform won't get the Fall Creators Update, as it's the case of PCs, their devices will receive a so-called feature2 update that comes mostly with bug fixes and just a couple of new features.

And one of the new features is an improved set of emoji that supports the latest Unicode updates, and starting today, more Windows phone users can give them a try.

Previously exclusively available for users in the Fast ring as part of the Windows Insider program with build 15240, the new pack of emoji can now be tried out by devices in the Slow ring as well, as Microsoft has released the same build to this channel too.

No announcement has been made, but this isn't too surprising given that Microsoft itself is reducing the focus on mobile, though you'd expect such releases to at least be revealed publicly.

Same emoji pack from PCs

Getting back to build 15240, the updated emoji pack comes with new snacks, dinosaurs, actions, and fantasy, all of which have already been released to PCs earlier this year.

"They're all accessible via both the touch keyboard and the Emoji Panel. We've tweaked some of our original emoji designs based on your feedback and to improve consistency with how the emoji is displayed on other platforms (while maintaining our Windows style)," Microsoft explained when releasing the build to the Fast ring.

Additionally, the same build also adds support for the Chinese Lunar calendar, which now works on both PCs and smartphones.

At this point, it's not known exactly when the feature2 update could be released to phones in the production ring, but the original plan was to synchronize PC and mobile updates. This means Microsoft initially wanted to release new updates, like the Fall Creators Update, to all devices at about the same time, but with the phone focus scaling down substantially, nobody knows the plan at the moment.

Source: Forget the iPhone, Microsoft Releases New Emoji to More Windows Phones