Mosaic Emoji Messenger, created by PLAY more limited, is kind of difficult to describe. It is in essence a messaging application to spice up texting. You can use it to send emoji artworks instead of boring texts. Emoji are Japanese emoticons, there are several applications to unlock them on the AppStore. Mosaic Emoji Messenger doesn’t unlock them, it just uses them. There are basically two modes to the app. You can draw a mosaic with your choice of emoji icons, and then send it in an SMS using the new API available in iOS 4, or you can have the app convert your text into artwork. There is a 10 character limit, unfortunately.
The app has all the emoji available as you would expect. Just choose which icon you want to be the background, then tap fill. Swipe the selection bar to move to the text filler, or go to draw. If you make a mistake, you can choose ‘replace with’ to fix it. When you’re done, tap the Go button in the top left. There you can send as an SMS, iPod Touches copy the artwork to the clipboard, or save it as a template. It’s pretty easy to send emails with it, but it just ends up being awkward.
The – and + buttons can be used to add or erase lines from the message.
The application quality just seems very low. The UI is always stumbling over itself and getting in your way. An Undo button couldn’t hurt either. It also seems that they need some better translators for the app to really improve, as I’m certain “The message save as ‘Copy’” is a little off. 🙂 The idea is ok I suppose, but I can’t imagine using it often.
Usability [rating:2.5/5]
User Interface [rating:2.5/5]
[rating:overall]