Google announced earlier that they were slowly retiring the blob emojis in favor of the circular ones. And as if to rub salt on wounds of those who liked it, they did it while celebrating World Emoji Day. Google also did provide a reason for the move too. The company said the new circular design would be more consistent with the new Android Material design.
However, Android Oreo still remains a distant dream for the majority of devices. So if some of those guys want the new emojis to use in WhatsApp, Substratum has a way for them. Over at XDA Developers, Substratum has posted a “WhatsApp Emoji Pack-Android 8.0 Oreo” APK. They say it works on all devices after install. However, we couldn’t get it to work on our device. The thread does have some comments that say it works. So it’s possible it works on some devices only. The dev does state that it works on Android 7.0 and above.
We will leave a link to the APK thread in the “Source” below. Do let us know if this work around is functional for you. Also, let us know if you liked the blob emojis more or these round ones in the comments below.
Source: XDA Developers