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04th Jan 2016

You could be spending extra to include emoji in texts

Here's how to avoid extra charges

Tom Victor

We rarely give a second thought to using emoji, but they could be costing us a pretty penny.

You’d think technology would move with the times, especially considering the cry-laugh emoji was named 2015’s word of the year.

But certain phone models count texts including emoji as picture messages, which cost more to send than texts under the terms of some mobile contracts.

According to the Daily Mail, citing MoneySavingExpert, emoji-laden messages could be charged extra even if you have a contract with unlimited texts.

In addition, group texts can be charged extra under some contracts, but you can steer clear of unwanted extras by disabling MMS messages in your phone’s settings.

It is thought that the issue predominantly affects those with older phones such as the Samsung S1, S2, S3 and S4, as well as certain models of iPhone.