VIDEO - App Enables Japanese Emoji for Non-Japanese (Disguised as an RSS reader)!

razorianfly · Jan 24, 2009

If you were slightly disappointed when Apple introduced iPhone 2.2, giving exclusive Emoji-love to all those Japanese iPhone users, you may be in luck.
A 99c/59p application has been discovered which when installed actually unlocks the Emoji keyboard on iPhone OS

[Edit] - It seems you can delete the app after enabling Emoji.

[Edit] - VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/2946195

Twitter user @Zyber17 has discovered a hole in 2.2. Not just that, but an weirdly-named application currently on the store,
selling for a measly 59p actually harnesses the ability to (accidentally) unlock the Emoji keyboard within iPhone OS 2.2. Heres what you do:

Buy the application, play with it for a few minutes, then quit it and navigate to: iPhone Settings > General > Keyboard > Japanese.
You will now see an On/Off option for Japanese Emoji!

Basically, we advise you to pick up this app as quickly as physically possible,
if you want Emoji on your non-Japanese iPhone or iPod touch.

...and yes, the app is disguised as an RSS reader.

Reviewed at: v1.1.1
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 0.1MB
Released on: 3rd Dec 2008
Retails for: 59p/$0.99

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G

[AppStore]

redgaz26 · Jan 24, 2009

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

And the name of the app is??

razorianfly · Jan 24, 2009

redgaz26 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

And the name of the app is??

[Edit] - VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/2946195

It's disguised as an RSS reader and has a Japanese name (see attached).

It actually DOES work. I'm working on getting a video up.

efp1 · Jan 24, 2009

Your update is not true. My girlfriend has an iPhone and I tested this out and have emoji enables now. I sent her a text message and it shows up on her phone, even though she doesn't have emoji nor the app in question.

razorianfly · Jan 24, 2009

efp1 said:
Your update is not true. My girlfriend has an iPhone and I tested this out and have emoji enables now. I sent her a text message and it shows up on her phone, even though she doesn't have emoji nor the app in question.

Edited. That's good to know. I'm just working off what people are telling me on Twitter at the minute.
While I have installed the app and enabled Emoji, I haven't got as far as testing sending an emoji-littered message yet.

R-Fly

kas23 · Jan 24, 2009

If you guys have any other questions about this, here is another thread from yesterday (perhaps not in the right forum though):

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/639576/

efp1 said:
Your update is not true. My girlfriend has an iPhone and I tested this out and have emoji enables now. I sent her a text message and it shows up on her phone, even though she doesn't have emoji nor the app in question.

I did the same and this is true. I just wonder if they show up on a non-iPhone? We'll see...

Zincous · Jan 24, 2009

This works! and it works when texting them!

Emoji is cool! I wasn't to disappointed that we didn't get them, but that was because I didn't know how cool they were, or how many of them there were.

There are a bunch of pages of these pictures.

Definitely worth the $.99 to buy the app that unlocks them

Also I would suggest not updating this app if any future version are released. They/apple may change something in the code to stop this from happening.

Watabou · Jan 24, 2009

What am I doing wrong? I played with the app for two minutes three times, but I still see no emji enabled when I go to Japanese Keyboard settings.

Edit: Got it finally, on the seventh try. I clicked on a article and left it open for about five minutes and then checked and it was there. Thanks for the heads up by the way, razorianfly.

TheZimm · Jan 24, 2009

Watabou said:
What am I doing wrong? I played with the app for two minutes three times, but I still see no emji enabled when I go to Japanese Keyboard settings.

Same thing happened to me. I opened every feed, and touched every link and then it worked.

Zym

razorianfly · Jan 24, 2009

Zincous said:
Also I would suggest not updating this app if any future version are released. They/apple may change something in the code to stop this from happening.

Although originally thought to be the case, the app is not connected with the hack.
You can in fact delete the app compeltely, and the Emoji settings remain active.

R-Fly

efp1 · Jan 24, 2009

razorianfly said:
Although originally thought to be the case, the app is not connected with the hack.
You can in fact delete the app compeltely, and the Emoji settings remain active.

R-Fly

Yup! I deleted the app and it still works. It's great!

TheZimm · Jan 24, 2009

razorianfly said:
Although originally thought to be the case, the app is not connected with the hack.
You can in fact delete the app compeltely, and the Emoji settings remain active.

R-Fly

Yup, your right. Very good catch. Hopefully now someone can find a loophole for running an IM app in the backgroud and disguise it as something like a flashlight =]

Zym

OneMike · Jan 24, 2009

TheZimm said:
Yup, your right. Very good catch. Hopefully now someone can find a loophole for running an IM app in the backgroud and disguise it as something like a flashlight =]

Zym

lol that would be a great find

kwjohns · Jan 24, 2009

Here's hoping Apple doesn't patch this in a future firmware update.

SkillsToShow · Jan 24, 2009

Wow!, This is amazing now I can use emoji on my touch.

TheZimm · Jan 24, 2009

kwjohns said:
Here's hoping Apple doesn't patch this in a future firmware update.

Agreed! Hopefully apple wont take out the fun.

Zym

The emoji even work if your posting here  Pound it  

Watabou · Jan 24, 2009

TheZimm said:
Agreed! Hopefully apple wont take out the fun.

Zym

The emoji even work if your posting here  Pound it  

Yeah I think only you can see it in your iphone. I can't. Here is what it looks like to me:

So, will this only show up on iphones or other cell phones too?

razorianfly · Jan 24, 2009

Watabou said:
Yeah I think only you can see it in your iphone. I can't. Here is what it looks like to me:

So, will this only show up on iphones or other cell phones too?

Can't see Emoji in Firefox? > http://tinyurl.com/a8bydl.

No solution for Safari users just yet.

euunog · Jan 24, 2009

There's another app that openly says it does this in the description that was posted about a few days ago (although it does cost more):

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/635765/

razorianfly · Jan 24, 2009

euunog said:
There's another app that openly says it does this in the description that was posted about a few days ago (although it does cost more):

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/635765/

As far as I understand it, that app doesn't 'unlock' Emoji, but uses Emoji in the app itself.
The above way unlocks it globally in iPhone OS 2.2.

You can use it in Tweetie, Mail, and any other app which supports normal text input. It unlocks the Japanese Emoji keyboard.
The keyboard which is in iPhone OS 2.2 as default, for everyone, but is hidden to those users outside of Japan.

R-Fly

euunog · Jan 24, 2009

razorianfly said:
As far as I understand it, that app doesn't 'unlock' Emoji, but uses Emoji in the app itself.
The above way unlocks it globally in iPhone OS 2.2.

You can use it in Tweetie, Mail, and any other app which supports normal text input. It unlocks the Japanese Emoji keyboard.
The keyboard which is in iPhone OS 2.2 as default, for everyone, but is hidden to those users outside of Japan.

R-Fly

Well I could be wrong (I haven't bought the app myself), but it does claim that it does in the description: "and the emoji icons can be used in other iPhone apps such as SMS, Notes, Calendar, Mail etc".

Edit: I saw this on Gizmodo, which mentions both apps: http://i.gizmodo.com/5138107/how-to-get-emoji-iphone-emoticons-for-free-without-jailbreaking

Telp · Jan 24, 2009

This is awesome. Why don't americans use emoji again!??

WPB2 · Jan 24, 2009

This is very cool. Everyone you send this to that has an iphone on 2.1 FW and above can see the emoji's. All my friends keep asking me how I get the icons in SMS and Email. I just say I don't know what they are talking about. LOL

LinMac · Jan 24, 2009

Telp said:
This is awesome. Why don't americans use emoji again!??

My best guess would be licensing.

kas23 · Jan 24, 2009

I really wonder if this developer actually did this on purpose (hide it in an RSS reader) or if this was just some sort of glitch or something. I also wonder if Apple knows about this and are just letting it slide. It would would be very mean-spirited to later take these Emoji away from us. If they do, I'll be sending them hate mail (with hand drawn angry Emoji ).

VIDEO - App Enables Japanese Emoji for Non-Japanese (Disguised as an RSS reader)!

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