Chrome and Emoji

Simple question:

what's the actual reason that chrome on os x doesn't render emoji?

— Isaac Hepworth (@isaach) October 30, 2014

It's a well known limitation but the reason for it is, surprisingly, not common knowledge. Maybe it's a licensing issue?

@isaach licensing is the last reason i heard

— Juanted House (@capotej) October 30, 2014

Maybe a strategy tax?

@isaach I guess they are pushing their own chrome emoticons?

— ☢ Bernardamus ☮ (@Bernardamus) October 30, 2014

Maybe something darker?

@isaach PRISM can't process them yet. Available shortly.

— David E (@Eastmad) October 30, 2014

When you think about it, Chrome would need to render Emoji one of two ways: either (a) bundle a set of Emoji with the browser; or (b) use the system set. It's likely true that licensing constraints make (a) difficult. But what about (b)? Apple introduced Emoji to OS X with 10.7 Lion in Summer 2011. Why can't Chrome just render those?

The answer lies in a Chromium bug report from 2010, in which we discover that Apple's Emoji live in a 32-bit (RGBA) bitmapped font… and Chrome's graphics engine doesn't support such things.

A recent comment on the issue from a Chromium developer notes "The priority over the last year has been DirectWrite and Android, but I'll be getting to this soon".

current status https://t.co/RKLjXocY9Lpic.twitter.com/mYEiJF02LM

— Isaac Hepworth (@isaach) October 30, 2014

UPDATE 12/15/2014: the fix is in, and should be arriving in Chrome soon.