Just yesterday we talked about the latest update of WhatsApp for iOS that enables users to send bigger emojis. Well, today we are happy to tell you that not only you will be able to send bigger emojis, but, just in time for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, WhatsApp has also added support for an Olympic Rings emoji on both iOS and Android platforms. And, icing on the cake, this addition is available also in the Web version of the app.
Now, we imagine that many of you can’t wait to use this symbol. So, how can you do? The procedure is quite easy. On Android and the Web, you can find the Olympic Rings emoji under the soccer ball submenu of your emoji list, right after the Bowling symbol. To use the Olympic Rings emoji remember that you have to use WhatsApp’s emoji list, which you can find by clicking on the emoji icon in the typing field. So it’s not that difficult.
A different story if you want to use the Olympic Rings emoji on iOS, because this latest emoji is not part of the iOS emoji keyboard. So you have two alternatives: the first one is to copy the emoji from a friend. The second one is to type (or copy) this sequence of symbols: ◯◯◯◯◯. Once you paste them into WhatsApp, they will turn into the Olympic rings emoji.
As Emojipedia explains: “The new Olympic Rings emoji is not a sticker or non-Unicode implementation. It uses the now tried-and-tested method of creating an Emoji ZWJ Sequence to render a new character … This sequence is created using five of the U+25EF LARGE CIRCLE2 Unicode Characters … When this sequence is displayed in WhatsApp (joined with U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER characters), the emoji comes to life and displays the emoji included within WhatsApp“.
Not only WhatsApp has dedicated this new emoji to the forthcoming Olympic Games, but is currently the only platform to support it.