The world is threatened by cross-platform confusion. Facebook-owned WhatsApp created "unique" emoji (smiles), which differ from Facebook and Messenger smileys, but are almost identical to Apple smiles. 1.2 billion users of the application will be in obvious confusion, reports The Guardian.

New icons are available in the beta version of the Android application. They are almost identical to Apple's emoji, which WhatsApp previously used not only in its iOS application, but also in versions for Android and Windows. There are only a few differences - the water pistol turned orange, the ghost changed the shape of the eyes, and the frying egg had a second yolk.

It's unclear what caused the update, and neither WhatsApp nor its Facebook owner commented on the new smilies. Experts believe that social networks in this way are trying to move away from the design of the emotions created by the third firms.

As a result, we have the following: if you are not on iOS, Facebook and Messenger now use one unique set of emotions. If you use the beta version of Android, WhatsApp uses a different set of emotions. And Instagram uses everything that is on the phone by default.

Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia believes that such similarity is not bad, because people do not really like the changes.

In addition, this situation leads to two results.

On the one hand, WhatsApp creates cross-platform confusion. On the other hand, on the contrary, it reduces. After all, if emoji are approximately the same, then devices and people will perceive their meaning more adequately. At the moment, many users complain that different platforms do not understand each other. For example, when one user has an iPhone and the other has a Samsung Galaxy, the red flag turns yellow, the beads become rosary, and the cookies become a pair of crackers.