Facebook was awarded a patent on May 3 that will allow the social networking platform to let its users have custom emojis of themselves.
According to the patent, reports Quartz, Facebook has reprogrammed basic emoticons to turn into personalized emoji. For example, typing a “:)” in Facebook Messenger would automatically turn the emoji into an image of the user displaying a smiling face.
Another possibility mentioned in the patent is for Facebook to suggest a photo where the individual is showcasing the emotion being represented in the emoji. This would require a bit of machine learning that enables facial recognition in photographs, which is something Facebook is currently toying around with. That said, Facebook’s current ability to distinguish faces for tagging purposes is far from perfect.
Earlier this year, Facebook changed the way people can react to a post by expanding options. Instead of just a “like” button, users have a range of responses that include "love," "haha," "wow," "sad," and "angry.” On Mother’s Day, the platform released a new flower reaction button to convey a new emotion: thankfulness.
Quartz notes that Facebook is not the first platform to introduce custom emojis, as corporate messaging tool Slack allows its users to upload photo emojis.
