[MOD] Apple Color Emoji system-wide for KitKat+ (updated with unicorns)

[angelsel]

Screenshot:

To install:

1. Grab AppleColorEmoji.ttf and place it into /system/fonts/
2. Set /system/fonts/AppleColorEmoji.ttf to have permissions 644 (rw-r--r--) and owner:group root:root.
3. Modify /system/etc/fonts.xml like so:
   • Find

         <family>
             <font weight="400" style="normal">NotoSansSymbols-Regular-Subsetted.ttf</font>
         </family>

   • Above this block, add

         <family>
             <font weight="400" style="normal">AppleColorEmoji.ttf</font>
         </family>

4. Set /system/etc/fonts.xml to have permissions 644 (rw-r--r--) and owner:group root:root.
5. Reboot.

(Thanks cclaxx for mentioning permissions!)

Old stuff:

Not sure if this has been done before, but here is my work.

Screenshots (warning: large)

You get my point. They work the same way KitKat's colour emojis work.

What I did:

1. Asked someone (jakew02 on #cyanogenmod-dev) to help me grab Apple Color Emoji.ttf off an OS X 10.9 system.
2. Used code available here to extract the PNG files from the TTF file's SBIX table.
3. Used fonttools (ttx) to create an empty TTF file based on the original Apple Color Emoji.ttf and this template by Google
4. Used this code by Google to add the extracted PNGs into the empty TTF file in CBDT/CBLC (the OpenType extension Google created) tables
5. Took the resulting TTF file and threw it into /system/fonts/, modifying /system/etc/fallback_fonts.xml accordingly

And it works. This is unlikely to work on versions of Android pre-KitKat, unless support for CBDT/CBLC tables in font files is present (or backported from KitKat).

Update: No need to do all this anymore. Later versions of Android support sbix out of the box. Just adjust the platEncID/platformID in the cmap of AppleColorEmoji.ttf.

The font size and kerning (all the emojis are the same size!) doesn't seem all that great, but someone who knows fonts better can fix that using ttx. If anyone wishes to create a flashable zip for this, please do so.

Update: I've updated this for the iOS 9.1/unicorn emoji. Details here
Update: ligatures (mostly) now work. details

Thank Google for deciding to implement colour emoji (and releasing their tools for creating those fonts too!) in KitKat, because they essentially did all the work.

 

[yener90]

Looked for it great

How did you do the fourth step?
im running windows and couldnt launch it.
I want to port Touchwiz Smileys to KitKat.
Those looking best :fingers-crossed:

 

[angelsel]

Use Python 2.7.

I did this all on Linux, so I'm not sure if this can be done on Windows or not. But since all the tools are written in Python, I'd imagine that it can with minimal effort.

 

[d2616ae26016]

Hi, I have just tried this on Android 4.4.2 (root, stock kernel & ROM) and it didn't work although I have followed your guide step-by-step. Any thoughts?

 

[hhamzah49]

Also didnt work for me. Omni rom 4.4.2

 

[Fusionalex]

Sadly it also doesn't work for me! Please could you try fixing it? I love the idea!

 

[cclaxx]

Hi, I have just tried this on Android 4.4.2 (root, stock kernel & ROM) and it didn't work although I have followed your guide step-by-step. Any thoughts?

Also didnt work for me. Omni rom 4.4.2

Sadly it also doesn't work for me! Please could you try fixing it? I love the idea!

guys maybe the problem are the permissions. you must set both files to rw-r-r otherwise it does not work.

 

[d2616ae26016]

guys maybe the problem are the permissions. you must set both files to rw-r-r otherwise it does not work.

Oh, you're right, it worked! I feel so stupid Thank you!

 

[hhamzah49]

guys maybe the problem are the permissions. you must set both files to rw-r-r otherwise it does not work.

Thanks! works! love it!

 

[Fusionalex]

guys maybe the problem are the permissions. you must set both files to rw-r-r otherwise it does not work.

Thank you so much it works perfectly! I love this!
Maybe someone should create a flashable zip to make this easier tho

EDIT:
I quickly tried to make a flashable zip. Never did this before so I'm not sure if I did it right. Maybe someone can check it and tell me if everything should work
I took the update-binary from CM11 because I wasn't sure if the older one from the tutorial I read would work.
http://ge.tt/8kOOWOB1?c
I don't know if it works and if it doesn't I am not responsible for any damage done to your devices. I just hope someone here who has more experience than me can check it out and confirm if it works

 

[rezarivani]

work for jellybean also??

 

[Fusionalex]

work for jellybean also??

No Google just introduced the framework for colored fonts in KitKat.

 

[Iceman_jkh]

Thank you so much it works perfectly! I love this!
Maybe someone should create a flashable zip to make this easier tho

EDIT:
I quickly tried to make a flashable zip. Never did this before so I'm not sure if I did it right. Maybe someone can check it and tell me if everything should work
I took the update-binary from CM11 because I wasn't sure if the older one from the tutorial I read would work.
https://mega.co.nz/#!xFFSRLZS!ITICxm3LSw1PKxDYzAaPbloCGwMlt4JnDohepI4YiRo
I don't know if it works and if it doesn't I am not responsible for any damage done to your devices. I just hope someone here who has more experience than me can check it out and confirm if it works

Great work.
Is the update via zip reversible?
If so, I'm willing to give it a try.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

---------- Post added at 10:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 AM ----------

Firstly, BIG THANKS to Angelsel, FusionAlex and cclaxx!

If you don't want to use the zip, simply download it and then extract the files (TTF and XML) out of the /etc and /fonts directories.

Summary of instructions:
1. Backup your fallback_fonts.xml file on your phone (found at: /system/etc/fallback_fonts.xml)
2. Copy the new fallback_fonts.xml into the /system/etc/ directory.
3. Set fallback_fonts.xml's file permissions to rw-r--r--
4. Copy the AppleColorEmoji.ttf into the /system/fonts/ directory. (Don't worry about overwriting anything, because this is a new file, it doesn't overwrite any of your other fonts).
5. Set AppleColorEmoji.ttf's file permissions to rw-r--r--
6. Reboot your phone.
7. Enjoy

The reason you don't have to overwrite any actual fonts is because the fallback_fonts.xml has been amended to look at the new (AppleColorEmoji.ttf) font before checking the standard android ones.

 

[Fusionalex]

Great work.
Is the update via zip reversible?
If so, I'm willing to give it a try.

Well I'm not sure. It's possible that it won't even flash because I might have done something wrong. In fact it should of course be reversible because the only thing it's supposed to do is copy the 2 files and fix the permissions of them. Still I'd rather have someone who knows how those zips work take a look at it before someone tries it, because I don't have any experience

EDIT:
I took another look at some more recent flashable zips and changed some stuff again. I also decided to upload the unsigned zip in case someone wants to edit the zip and sign it
http://ge.tt/8kOOWOB1?c

EDIT 2:
OK, I think, that my zip would also work, but I found an app called ZIPme and created a flashable zip with it. It works perfectly (I just tested it on my phone)
So finally:
Enjoy this flashable zip of this amazing mod:
https://mega.co.nz/#!JU0nRAZY!Pbv9Gy5tS8e5pIjDX8OuZzSnkVA3zegHlXD_ImAGXIc

PS. If some experienced DEV could take a look at my original zip tho and told me if i did everything right I would still be happy

 

[angelsel]

Well I'm not sure. It's possible that it won't even flash because I might have done something wrong. In fact it should of course be reversible because the only thing it's supposed to do is copy the 2 files and fix the permissions of them. Still I'd rather have someone who knows how those zips work take a look at it before someone tries it, because I don't have any experience

EDIT:
I took another look at some more recent flashable zips and changed some stuff again. I also decided to upload the unsigned zip in case someone wants to edit the zip and sign it
http://ge.tt/8kOOWOB1?c

EDIT 2:
OK, I think, that my zip would also work, but I found an app called ZIPme and created a flashable zip with it. It works perfectly (I just tested it on my phone)
So finally:
Enjoy this flashable zip of this amazing mod:
https://mega.co.nz/#!JU0nRAZY!Pbv9Gy5tS8e5pIjDX8OuZzSnkVA3zegHlXD_ImAGXIc

PS. If some experienced DEV could take a look at my original zip tho and told me if i did everything right I would still be happy

Ge.tt and Amazon S3 seems to hate me. I can't download your original zip.

The second zip will work fine, but there is no need to set permissions - extract_dir's default permissions (and file ownership) are already correct. This zip sets the owner/group to 1000/1000 (system, iirc) which is not correct; the files should be owned by root (uid/gid 0, naturally).

Thanks for creating a flashable zip

 

[Fusionalex]

Ge.tt and Amazon S3 seems to hate me. I can't download your original zip.

The second zip will work fine, but there is no need to set permissions - extract_dir's default permissions (and file ownership) are already correct. This zip sets the owner/group to 1000/1000 (system, iirc) which is not correct; the files should be owned by root (uid/gid 0, naturally).

Thanks for creating a flashable zip

Hm I can upload the original zip somewhere else later

Oh ok, I didn't know that extract_dir already sets the permission Also the zip was created by an app It still works but I will try to change it maybe ) Thanks!

 

[AMoosa]

This is really good but the font seems to be incomplete. I get messages that just show a square instead of the emoji in the notification bar.

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk

 

[Fusionalex]

This is really good but the font seems to be incomplete. I get messages that just show a square instead of the emoji in the notification bar.

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk

I dont think so This never happened to me!

 

[qazsxdcfv]

Wow very cool and based on the screenshots , You did resize all of the image ?
Cool ..

Wait , why didnt we just replace the AndroidEmoji.ttf and change it to AppleColorEmoji.ttf ? I think its the same ..

Sent from my Nokia 3310™

 

[vladimir_carlan]

Works on Galaxy S4 i9505 running KitKat Google Play Edition! Thanks!