22-05-2025
NTT Docomo to retire iconic emoji set after 26 years
NTT Docomo will phase out its proprietary set of emoji — known as Docomo Emoji — starting with smartphones released in late June, according to an announcement from the telecom giant, ending a 26-year run that helped shape the visual language of mobile communication.
Beginning next month, newly released Android smartphones and feature phones sold by Docomo will no longer include the carrier's original emoji. Samsung's Galaxy series will follow suit starting with devices launching in July or later. Galaxy phones will instead use Samsung's own emoji designs, while other Android and Docomo-branded feature phones will adopt Google's Noto Color Emoji set.
The transition won't be limited to new models. From October, some existing Galaxy devices will receive software updates that remove Docomo's emoji from the system.
Docomo Emoji debuted in 1999 with the company's i-mode mobile internet service, offering a novel way for users to express emotion and nuance via electronic mail. The word emoji itself comes from the combination of the Japanese words for picture, e, and letter, moji. At a time when screen space and bandwidth were scarce, the emoji — simple 12 x 12 pixel designs depicting facial expressions and everyday objects — enabled more fluid, visual communication.
Development constraints meant that the project lacked professional design staff. Instead, it was overseen by Shigetaka Kurita, who at the time was a planner for i-mode and supervised the emoji's creation in-house.
The symbols quickly became a touchstone for Japanese mobile users and eventually laid the foundation for today's global emoji ecosystem. Apple's first emoji keyboard appeared on iOS 2.2 in November 2008. It was initially restricted to iPhone users in Japan, but expanded to outside users in 2011 with iOS 5.0, and eventually became enabled by default. Emoji is compatible with the Unicode standard, meaning a character sent from one device's set can be displayed in another.
In 2016, the Museum of Modern Art in New York added Docomo's original 176 emoji set to its permanent collection, cementing their cultural legacy.
While Docomo's emoji remain beloved by some, their prominence has faded amid the rise of more expressive tools like LINE stickers and social media platforms that support richer visuals. As digital communication has evolved, the original Docomo Emoji set has played a less central role in mobile interaction.
Responding to a user on X who asked how he felt about the emoji's retirement, Kurita expressed no regret.
'Honestly, I don't feel sad. Docomo Emoji have fulfilled their role, and the fact that they're preserved in a museum as part of history gives me a sense of closure,' he wrote on Wednesday. 'More than anything, I just feel grateful. I want to say thank you to everyone who used them for so many years."
He added: 'One could say they've more than fulfilled their purpose. If anything, their retirement feels long overdue. A heartfelt thank you for the many years of service.'
