Yep we have another new confirmed feature. This feature has been hidden by Apple, but has been uncovered be calling up an unpublished API. Apparently iPhone OS 2.2 will have Japanese emoji characters. Now for those who don’t know what emoji is, they are picture characters that are very popular in the Japanese mobile market. Some Apple analysts have speculated that Apple will see slow iPhone 3G sales due to the fact that there is no emoji support. So, that is reason enough to include emoji in the next firmware release.

The emoji are in a single artwork file on the SDK and iPhone firmware. You can find those in the UIKIT.framework. More information on the way, as soon as more new features are uncovered.