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Sometimes nothing gets your point across like Darth Vader.
Like, you text your buddy: “Where shall we have lunch?”
Your buddy: “How about that hole-in-the-wall Mexican joint?”
You: VADER.
He’ll get the message. Alas, iOS offers no Vader or other “Star Wars” emoji with which to express your geeky displeasure (or, in happier moments, geeky pleasure). But here’s good news: the newly updated official Star Wars app does. It now features over 50 instantly recognizable characters, ships, weapons and droids.
Lucasfilm Ltd.
If you’re not already familiar with the free app, it’s a hodgepodge of all things Star Wars: news and videos, sound effects, a themed selfie generator, animated GIFs and so on.
A recent update adds some 52 emojis, from C3PO and BB-8 to TIE Fighters and lightsabers. Old Ben Kenobi? Yep. Young Ben Kenobi. Yep. And artist Truck Torrence, in keeping with the emoji spirit, made everything thoroughly adorable.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Ready to share some of these cutesy icons with friends? You can’t access them from the stock iOS emoji keyboard, but they copy and paste very easily. Just fire up the Star Wars app, tap the GIFS + EMOJIS button and then tap whatever emoji you want. It’s instantly copied to the clipboard.
Now head to your Messages app and paste into your text field. Presto! Extra points if you follow up a lightsaber with a “FWOOM! FWOOM!” audio message.
The same procedure works for the app’s animated GIFs.
For now, the Star Wars emojis are limited to the iOS version of the app, but Bothan spies report they’re coming soon to Android.
