Gift of NTT DOCOMO, Inc.© 2016 NTT DOCOMO Emoji (original set of 176), 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita — ...

Emoji is humankind’s weirdest and most successful ideographic language. If it is to become an illustrative one instead, that’s a revision worth discussing with words, not just celebrating ...

NTT Docomo will phase out its proprietary set of emoji — known as Docomo Emoji — starting with smartphones released in late June, according to an announcement from the telecom giant, ending a ...

Shigetaka Kurita, NTT DOCOMO. Emoji (original set of 176), 1998–99. Software and digital image files. Gift of NTT DOCOMO Inc., Japan. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.

DoCoMo’s competitors jumped into the fray, upping the ante with more and more complex versions: with color, better resolution, more variations, animations. An emoji arms race was on.

TOKYO -- NTT Docomo will stop supporting its own in-house emoji, the Japanese wireless carrier said Wednesday, marking the end of an era for one of the first companies to use the digital pictures.

Emoji, the system of emoticons ubiquitous in Japanese text messaging and mobile email, is to be standardized after three of the country’s major carriers announced plans to unify their systems.

The Cooper Hewitt announcement follows the 2016 acquisition of the original DoCoMo emoji set by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. DoCoMo is a top mobile phone operator in Japan, where emoji began.

With over 6 billion emojis sent on a daily basis, and over 90% of the world’s online community making regular use of them, emojis may be one of Japan’s greatest exports.