Unicode: Emoji vs Text

Unicode character become emoji?

Some unicode symbols, now become emoji, which makes many math symbols not usable.

for example:

your browser shows:

• multimedia keys: ◼ ⏮ ⏯ ⏭ 🔇
• sound level keys: 🔉 🔊

This is annoying.

When is a Unicode Character Rendered as Text or Emoji?

By Unicode's spec:

• Some characters have both emoji and textual presentation.
• Some characters have only emoji presentation.
• Some characters have only textual presentation.
• For those that have both emoji and textual presentation, Unicode specifies
• which one should be default.

A Unicode: Variation Selector can be used to chose a presentation.

“Variation Selector” is a invisible character. It indicates a rendering preference for the character before it.

Unicode character in Browser

Browser or application do not necessarily respect the variation selector. For example, twitter renders vast majority of emoji as emoji, and ignores the variation selector. (as of 2018-06-12)

Font Influence

If the app has an associated font with text, the font most likely determine if a character is represented as text or emoji.

Determine Text/Emoji Presentation of a Character

There's no programable way to tell which character have both emoji and or text presentation.

Unicode Variation Selector

• Unicode: Variation Selector

Unicode Variation Selector Usually Has No Effect

Here is some characters with both emoji and text presentation.

Here's what your browser shows:

Practical Solution

In practice

• If you want a character to show as emoji, use emoji font.
• If you want a character to show as symbol, use symbol font.

• Emoji Font from Google, Apple, Microsoft

Which Characters Can Become Emoji

• Unicode: Which Characters Can Become Emoji