汉字输入被翻译成WhatsApp中的表情符号 -- whatsapp-messenger 领域 android 相关 的问题

When inputting a Chinese character "xeex90x89" on WhatsApp for Android version 2.20.47, it is rendered as the emoji xf0x9fx98x9d instead.

My first guess is the Unicode of the Chinese character and the emoji are the same? Is there any reason behind this?

FYI: The character is typed with ChangJie, and the input code is xe7xabxb9xe4xbaxbaxe6x88x88xe4xb8x80xe5xbcx93 or HOIMN.

This is because WhatsApp uses Apple's emoji set, which essentially uses SoftBank mapping for backward compatibility in a Private Use Area (PUA), long before emoji was standardized in the Unicode.

The character "xeex90x89" (U+E409) is in the Basic Multilingual Plane's (U+E000 - U+F8FF) PUA. Since it is in the PUA, there is no standard definition for the character. While the character is supposedly rendered as , SoftBank (and Apple subsequently) apparently uses the PUA for their emoji, and U+E409 "coincidentally" renders xf0x9fx98x9d.

Some other characters in the PUA that are rendered as emoji on WhatsApp (U+E400 - U+E40F):

xeex90x80xeex90x81xeex90x82xeex90x83xeex90x84xeex90x85xeex90x86xeex90x87xeex90x88xeex90x89xeex90x8axeex90x8bxeex90x8cxeex90x8dxeex90x8exeex90x8f

Note that this is entirely WhatsApp's doing. This also affects WhatsApp Web and also WhatsApp on PC. However, other apps/OSes may render the character differently or otherwise, fails to render.