Have you seen a truck emoji? Ford seeks approval for one

FORD said that, considering the “billions of emoji sent daily,” and nearly every mode of transportation including cars, scooters, boats, spaceships and ski lifts among the 3,000 approved icons available to emoji users, there is one glaring omission: There is no pickup truck emoji.

So Ford has made one, announced just in time to celebrate Emoji Day on July 17.

“When customers started demanding a truck emoji, we knew we had to help make it happen,” said Ford president Joe Hinrichs. “Given the popularity of Ford trucks globally, there’s no one better than Ford to help bring an all-new pickup truck emoji to hard-working texters around the globe.”

Ford said it submitted last year a proposal to the Unicode Consortium — the organization that reviews and approves proposals for new emoji — to add a truck to emoji keyboards everywhere. Now, the pickup truck emoji has been short-listed as a candidate for inclusion in a future version of Unicode.

The concept emoji’s capable styling has been tuned to meet current trends, the carmaker said.

“Our team spent a lot of time digging through message boards, texting influencers and watching social media feeds to really understand our customers’ needs,” said Craig Metros, Ford North America design director. “People want a truck emoji that’s fresh, stylish, carries their ideas, and ‘tows’ the line on what a truck means. The end result is a modern icon that should give all truck fans a smiley face emoji.”

If the pickup truck emoji is approved in early 2020, the design will be customized for all mobile platforms, Ford said.