New emojis are added all the time and therefore it usually doesn't comes as a surprise when we stumble upon fresh and sometimes weird emojis. But this mysterious emoji is something different. It has not only captured wide attention and has even left emoji experts pondering over what it stands for.
Jeremy Burge, the creator of emoji reference site Emojipedia, has discovered a mysterious emoji appearing in the developer previews of Apple iOS 9.1 and OS X 10.11.1, but there is no information as to what what it is, or why it exists.
Before you start to wonder what is the big deal about this mysterious emoji, which Apple calls "eye in speech bubble", let us tell you it's not a standard Unicode addition. It can’t be found in Unicode 1.1, or any other version right through to the Unicode 9.0 candidates. In other words, it has not been considered by the Unicode Authority - an organisation entrusted with the task of standardising emojis to ensure cross-platform compatibility.
While there is a new set of emoji due to be released in iOS 9.1, but this emoji in question is not there on the emoji keyboard. It instead shows as a placeholder ellipsis on the emoji keyboard of the current iOS 9.1 developer preview. And tapping and holding on this ellipsis gives away this - an eye and a speech bubble.
Burge explains, this mysterious emoji is created from joining these two standard Unicode characters together - Eye is an emoji approved in Unicode 7, Left Speech Bubble was also approved in Unicode 7, but isn't a standard addition recommended for emoji display. And combining these two characters with a Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ) results in the creation of the eye in speech bubble emoji.
It's a similar technique used by Apple for the range of family emojis. But the difference between the use of ZWJs here is that the family emojis are well documented by Unicode. But this the "eye in speech bubble" emoji has not been suggested or recommended by Unicode.
Business Insider claims to have reached out to Apple to get an explanation on this emoji, but the company declined to comment.
Concerning this emoji, there is also some discussion going on in a Reddit thread. While a user says it be an emoji for iMessage, Apple's messaging product, another suggests it to be an emoji for "Seen".
What's your take?
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