Smartphone users can now text with Hillary Clinton … sort of.
Starting today, iPhone and Android users can soon add Hillary Clinton emojis to their texting arsenal.
The “Hillmoji” keyboard, which launched Tuesday morning in the Apple and Android app stores, is being offered by Snaps, a mobile messaging company. The keyboard features a range of Hillary Clinton images designed by creative studio Made by Radio, including images of Hillary Clinton in various brightly colored pantsuits, and images of Hillary Clinton on her phone and wearing sunglasses, seemingly inspired by the iconic photo of Clinton that was made popular by the viral “Texts From Hillary” blog. The keyboard also offers animated gifs of Clinton, as well as female empowerment-themed stickers bearing slogans such as “Madam President,” “Get your pantsuit on,” and “I can’t, I’m busy breaking glass ceilings.”
“The shareable content within the Hillmoji keyboard will be updated through the Snaps CMS to coincide with critical milestones in the Clinton campaign. The first big initiative is around engagement and awareness with millennials, then volunteer work and donations, and finally a push to get out and vote,” the company said in a press release.
The Hillmoji keyboard is not officially affiliated with the Clinton campaign, but Snaps founder Vivian Rosenthal said she wanted to create the keyboard because she is a Clinton supporter.
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“The Clinton campaign is not officially involved in the keyboard,” Rosenthal told MSNBC via email. “I spoke with her head of digital who knows about it, recognizes the scale of the messaging space, and understands its value to complement Facebook. They’re excited about it, but it was too complicated to get them officially involved. Also, as a female tech founder who’s a supporter of Hillary, I wanted to leverage our messaging platform to support her campaign. I hope other tech founders will follow that trend!” Emojis have become increasingly popular with smartphone users in the past few years, particularly millennials and younger audiences. Recent research from eMarketer estimates that 6 billion emoticons and stickers are sent in mobile messages around the world every day. Snaps makes a variety of animated and emoji keyboards for brands and organizations, and recently raised $6.5 in venture capital funding earlier this year. The Hillmoji keyboard is available for download in the App Store.
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