Rejected on Legal 5.2.5 use of Apple emojis in app??

The problem isn't with using pictures of common object, but with using the Apple copyrighted versions of those pictures. Perhaps you can find an older representation or picture, not copyrighted by Apple, of the same objects.

Previous app approvals do not seem to set any precedent for how Apple will interpret their guidelines for any current app in review. Old apps (with ancient iOS 6 UI/UX, etc.) are often grandfathered, and left in the App store. But new apps still need to comply with the newest guidelines.

>Perhaps this is some new-found objection

If you mean stance concerning what Apple legal views as protectionable IP on their own turf, sure, that - not sure it's new, tho.

>I just looked around at other apps on the App Store

As stated, the ASRGs are fluid, and nothing in the store now is any promise of what may/may not be allowed/rejected going forward.

>Perhaps Apple would allow use of these with....but I have not been offered that option

You always have the option to speak up. Users can feedback via http://www.apple.com/feedback/ - Individuals using betas are free to use the Feedback Assistant; Devs can use the 'Report Bugs' link, below right. Be sure to add your report number to your thread for reference.

Good luck.

I've posted twice about emojis but no response.

a video at the latest wwdc using arkit showed emojis and the presenter stated that you can use emojis.

i think legally this is very grey area for apple. you cannot include the copyrighted images of anything without permission but you are coding up the ascii/hex code for the symbol, apple is providing the artwork.

if i design a custom keyboard so the app needs to provide its own artwork?

i wonder how apple would respond if people starting including free open source emojis in apps? say android? google's? whatsapps? it has irritated me so much i'm about to crank up photoshop, create a whole new set and release them for free.

I understand that new apps need to comply with the newest guidelines and presumably updates do too. I'm just asking if others have encountered the same objections and hoping that someone can suggest how to convince Apple that these text objects are mutually beneficial to Apple, to Developers, and to our common customers. Apple creates fonts that only work on their products and Developers are free and encouraged to use them. How is an Apple emoji any different in concept or use?

Apple rejected my Treasurys app that has been in around for about 5 years and the original version and all subsequent releases passed muster. Now, Apple just informed me that I could identify other apps that do similar things, but they wouldn't say whether or not those were okay. Apple wants me to snitch on other developers, an offer that I am happy to reject.

The emojis I use are text just like the alphabet is text, but I'm starting to repeat myself now.

I'd love to have a variety of free emoji/text objects. I use the Apple ones because they nicely suit the purpose, despite the limitations. For example, all the arrow, numerical, and alphabetic emojis are rounded squares in blue. I'd love to have them in a variety of colors to add extra information content to the emoji. For example, if an arrow pointing left were to indicate going back or slowing down, then I'd like the background to be red. If an arrow pointing right were to indicate going forward or speeding up, then I'd like to background to be green. Referencing common objects like traffic lights in this way adds something to the utility of the object, IMHO.

That sounds like a very good idea. I just checked Google's Noto fonts and they have a colour emoji font and their licensing is very flexible. I doubt end users would really notice that screen shots aren't exactly Apple fonts.

As a follow-up, other developers are getting the same rejection treatment. Here's a story in The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/8/16992830/apple-emoji-crackdown-cross-platform-apps-slack-whatsapp

If other developers are taking Apple's fonts and artwork and embedding them in apps on other platforms, then they deserve a lawsuit, not just rejection. How would you feel is someone took your artwork and and embedded it in their competing app? Is this what developers are so upset about regarding emoji? They are upset that Apple is just rejecting their apps instead of suing them outright. The world's gone mad I tell you.

1. Emoji is a font built in iOS. Nobody takes it from anywhere to somewhere else. It's already and always inside the iPhone.

2. Built-in fonts are not copyright free but users are allowed to use them for commercial purposes. That's what fonts are meant to be used for.

well you are incorrect and it seems have limited knowledge of a font, how it is created, rendered and what those legal implications are.

unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html

when you code up a specific ascii code, say U+1F601 apple is supplies a default artwork. however if i install google's free fonts or create my own, my fonts override apple's and my rendering gets shipped with my app. whomever creates the artwork controls the copyright for the artwork not the ascii code.

copyright protection pertains to the artwork only.

whatsapp, facebook, twitter, etc supply their own emojis in their apps for branding/marketing, however as pointed out above there are free emoji available that can easily be ported over.

with the new fonts like colored gilbert, OpenType-SVG you should be to do that

it's at www.typewithpride.com

For now only photoshop on the mac supports opentype-svg, so i have to render out my fonts first but no big deal, scripting photoshop is easy.