Our emojis seem to have changed from JoyPixels (formerly known as EmojiOne) to the Twitter emoji set
This last emoji, for example, is pulling the URL https://emoji.discourse-cdn.com/twitter/confused.png?v=9 rather than https://emoji.discourse-cdn.com/twitter/confused.png?v=9, which is what we had until partway through yesterday.
I know we go through updates from time to time as the provider releases a new version, but this is switching us over to a different set of emojis altogether. Whatās going on?
I also notice that old posts, those more than a couple months old, are still displaying the JoyPixels emojis as before. However, the Twitter emojis are encroaching; as Iāve been watching over the last several hours, the Twitter ones are extending into older and older posts.
Iāve gotta say, I did like having the only emoji provider whose actually looked like hugging ()
This is similar to a glitch we had a few years ago when the emoji providers got mixed up and we got some even odder emojis then. Is this another bug?
Well, they got back to me, and the news isnāt great. Apparently JoyPixels wants to charge the Discourse team for the use of their emojis, and it looks pretty pricey. https://www.joypixels.com/licenses/pricing
You can see samples of all of the emoji types on Emojipedia, e.g. https://emojipedia.org/hugging-face/ (I definitely agree that JoyPixelsā hugging emoji is the only good one.)
I think what weāll do is let folks discuss a bit here in this thread and then weāll probably run a poll to see which emoji set yāall like best out of the six listed above?
Disappointing news, but thanks for finding out I guess things have changed since 2015, when they made it their defaultā¦
So we were very excited when Emoji One came along with an explicitly open source set of Emoji images, free for everyone! We immediately made Emoji One our default Emoji set.
No more
Okay, I think I can get a sampling by checking out URLsā¦
Apple:
Google:
Twitter:
Win10:
Google Classic:
Facebook Messenger:
The format to check these is 
If we do a poll, Iād definitely suggest a ācheck however many you wantā rather than a ācheck your top choiceā given the larger number of options and to prevent vote splitting.
Well, Iād probably favor Twitter as the top choice because I think it makes the best use of space. The expressions are distinct and easily recognizable at a glance even when reduced to the 20x20 dimensions that would apply in forum posts. Many of the others are designed well enough when viewed at a larger scale but end up compressed and harder to make out at Discourse sizes. This is especially noticeable with the blush emoji; itās easy to see that the Twitter version is blushing, but itās much subtler with the other ones, which come off more as if theyāre just relaxed and smiling. And the facial features of the Twitter versions are fairly large, easing recognition.
Twitter emojis are also similar to previous versions of EmojiOne, like we used to have on this forum, before it went 3D.
Iād rate Google and Facebook Messenger as tied for second, as theyāre still mostly prominent, but the shading details means a little less room for facial feature detail.
Iād rate Apple a little below those two, as I donāt think it makes as good use of available space when shrunk; they just end up looking tinier than the rest.
Google Classic are weirdly cute, but theyāre harder to tell apartālook how similar confused and rage areāand Iād find them rather distracting.
Win10 is distinct for those prominent black outlines, which I have rather mixed feelings about.
Twitter = Facebook Messenger > Google > Apple > Google Classic > Windows 10, although Iād be fine with any of the top four.
Thoughts
Twitter: minimal, flat, and modern. The minimalism and slightly-larger facial features give them the best overall clarity, IMO. However, the lack of borders/shading/shadows means their emoji have the least contrast when the emoji color is similar to the background color. E.g., the skin tone 2 emoji on a white background.
Facebook Messenger: more detailed shading makes the facial expressions slightly less clear, but improves their emojiās contrast against backgrounds. This is a pretty good trade in my book, so they tie with Twitter for being my favorite option. I really donāt understand what happened here though:
Google: while I personally think the gradient is very dated looking, theyāre decent. Very similar shading to Facebookās, but Facebookās drop shadows and greater willingness to ābreak the outlineā gives them a slight edge in clarity. E.g.,
Apple: a lot of details and look the most 3D. While pretty, it makes everything look smaller. However, I do think their skin-tone emoji have the best clarity and contrast. They are also the most consistently designed.
Google Classic: aka the blobs/thumbs. I admit I have a soft spot for these guys; they look like little slimes.
(The older versions looked even more like little slimes.)
But since theyāre discontinued, they donāt have and wonāt get any of the newer emoji. Discourse is using Twitterās emoji to fill in some of the gaps, but Iād prefer to go with Twitterās in the first place.
Windows 10: they sure areā¦ something, alright. Iām really not a fan of that black border. It eats into the size of the emoji and the negative space around the emoji, reducing clarity substantially.
Theyāre semi-passable on mobile, but truly awful on desktop, when youāre further away from the screen.
actually looked like hugging (
I guess things have changed since 
