According to one of the OS designers, Microsoft is working on improving its 2D emoji with a proper three-dimensional version.
A LinkedIn post by Microsoft’s Nando Costa, explaining how Microsoft came to design its “flowing emoji,” describes the behind-the-scenes work on the more expressive emoji system.
Given the amount of work Microsoft has put into beautifying the characters with a unique flavor, it’s surprising that the 3D element was left out in favor of a flattened approach.
The piece itself is of great interest to emoji enthusiasts, but the kicker comes with Costa’s response to a tweet about his piece. It makes it clear that Microsoft is still working on bringing true 3D emoji to Windows 11 in a future update.
Reader @EthanAlvaree said: “Nice. I wish they actually looked like this on Windows 11.” To that replied Costa “Thank you and agree! We are working on that.”
No timeline was mentioned for the actual launch of the 3D versions of the emoji, or why Costa and his team decided to drop them for the original Windows 11 launch last year.
The blog post itself explains how Microsoft has attempted to make its People category more humanistic, while still being representative of a variety of characteristics and staying true to the emoji system. Not an easy task!
In the blog post, he added, “It came down to our third and final iteration for the People category!” Costa writes. “We had an aesthetic balance between the graphic look and feel we wanted and the very important human qualities we needed. In this final version, there were three different head shapes: genderless, female, and male (as seen below). Each creates enough space for variations in skin tone, hair and facial hair to easily function as a connected system while still standing on its own.”