After the exploding number of new emojis available in iOS 9, Apple brings a surprise to the table. The previews of iOS 9.1 and OS X 10.11.1 show a new emoji created by the company, and it is very intriguing.
At first glance, users may overlook the presence of the "eye in the speech bubble."
iOS 9.1 is keeping its promise to introduce a number of new emojis, mainly from Unicode 7.0 and Unicode 8.0. Apple clients who want to express themselves will be able to do so with new smileys (thinker, nerd and upside-down face), weather elements (snowing, raining) and sports (from golf and ice-skating to archery and levitating).
However, the real news is that the new emoji is not a regular Unicode imported element, being absent from all the previous Unicode versions, from 1.1 to 9.0. The developer preview shows an elliptical placeholder where the new emoji will be. With a tap and a hold the ellipsis opens up showing what is beneath: a speech bubble and an eye. This means that the character will contain both Unicode characters, which will overlap to create a new one.
While Eye and Left Speech Bubble are both part of the approved Unicode 7 list, the latter is not a standard addition. The two characters can be merged with the use of a Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ) to create the "eye in speech bubble" emoji.
The ZWJ was used when Apple revealed the family emoji where three separate characters - Woman, Woman and Girl - were grouped together. The result can be seen on Apple devices and is an emoticon featuring two mothers and a daughter.
What is the important difference between the family and the "eye in speech bubble" emojis? The family has its own page in Unicode's documentation. This arouses curiosity about the new addition to the emoji family and rumors have started to circulate. Some speculations claim that the "eye in speech bubble" relates to Apple's video messaging app FaceTime.
Regardless of the correct explanation, "eye in speech bubble" will be here starting with iOS 9.1.
Apple did not reveal the true meaning of the emoji, but chances are it will be made known later in 2015.
