Inhaler emoji proposed to show asthmatic like conditions
A new inhaler emoji has been proposed to the Unicode Consortium, which could be used to show asthmatic symptoms.
A new inhaler emoji has been proposed to the Unicode Consortium, potentially adding a symbol that describes inhalable medicine.
The 6 page document submitted by Tom Adams and Jerri Wilson, comments on the fact that there are emojis to represent injectable and ingestible medicines, but nothing for sufferers of asthma and other related breathing conditions.
The World Health Organisation estimates that over 230 million people suffer from asthma and a further 250 million suffer from COPD, showing a potential large use base for the emoji.
The document starts with a short description of the need for such a symbol; a draft design of the inhaler emoji is also shown, which is represented by the distinctive metered dose inhaler.
The symbol is then compared to already existing medicine emoji syringe. In all areas of the comparison, including Google Search, Google Trends and Youtube, the syringe shows significantly more results.
This could be due to the fact that syringes are used for other activities other than medicinal purposes - like kitchen syringes for example.
Sequencing potential is somewhat lacking for this emoji, but it could be used with the man, woman or other people symbols to indicate that someone needs an inhaler.
As the proposal highlights; there is no reliable way to show respiratory conditions with existing emojis - and there are no current ways to replicate an inhaler emoji, not even by sequencing.
In terms of future proofing, the proposal further comments that the metered dose inhaler has been used since the 1950s and that modern designs of the inhaler have made only small changes to the original design.
If the symbol is successful and deemed useful by the Unicode Consortium, we could see the inhaler emoji in Emoji 12.0 or even version 13.0.
