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Not only are the shapes different, but users often complained the icons were so small it was difficult to tell what emotion someone was trying to convey -- making it difficult, for example, to tell the difference between the crying emoji and the laugh/crying emoji.
Executives said the change was necessary not just because of aesthetics. As emojis become an increasingly common tool for sharing emotions, the difference between Google blobs and other emoji platforms was causing communications breakdowns for users.
Google said its new version of emojis will be released later this year, timed with the forthcoming new Android operating system.