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Samsung’s Wemogee app uses emoji to bridge language gap
Samsung’s latest app puts the world’s love affair with emoji to good use. And no, not just for the memes either.
Dubbed Wemogee, the app is specifically developed for those suffering from aphasia — the inability to understand written language or speech — to better converse with loved ones. Because of this language and communication barrier, conversing with aphasia sufferers isn’t an easy task.
But that’s exactly what Wemogee is trying to change.
Wemogee uses a logical string of emoji that can be understood as a sentence
On the surface, the app displays a logical string of emoji that can be understood as a sentence. For instance, “I love you” is replaced by a simple heart emoji. “Thank you” takes the form of a smiley followed by folded prayer hands.
A string of emoji eventually has a meaning etched onto it, and in turn, both those with aphasia and those who don’t can understand the string’s meaning. It’s effectively a letter-less language.
Samsung explains that the app features over 140 of these simple phrases, co-developed alongside language professionals.
“This project was created in order to restore the possibility for aphasia sufferers to communicate easily and quickly with their friends and family,” Samsung explains on the Wemogee site.
“The simple and intuitive interface avoids overstressing the ideational area of the aphasic’s brain: through a single button, the patient can start or continue a chat with his contacts.”
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Using emoji as a form of language isn’t a terrible idea either.
According to Wired, around 92% of all people use emoji, with a third of them doing so daily. As more social networks evolve to include emoji, moving images and memes, language too will evolve.
Wemogee is currently available for Android, but the iOS version is still in the works.
