You expect the unique emojis to show people clearly what you mean when you share something on Facebook, but what if they don’t?
What would you do when the platform does not align with your emotions and replaces the icons with a dotted box that says OBJ?
When this happens, you are left wondering what OBJ means on Facebook and why it happened to you.
This is not an uncommon occurrence, so rest assured that there are others who have experienced the same thing.
Seeing OBJ instead of emojis on Facebook is common enough to make some people seek answers, and luckily, we have!
OBJ appears in posts for a number of reasons. We’ll explain why it appears, then examine how you can remove it.
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What Is OBJ On Facebook Posts?
OBJ, shown as [OBJ] on Facebook posts, appears like a weird acronym, but it’s just an acronym for object. OBJ is an “object replacement character.”
Almost everything you see on a webpage is an ‘object’ of some sort. When you see [obj] on Facebook posts and Instagram posts (note that it is not a reason you IG post wasn’t posted), it just means the object can’t be displayed. OBJ is a placeholder in Unicode, in other words.
Unicode – the Universal Code of Character Sets – is a standardized way to represent millions of different symbols. It incorporates all the common symbols, including emojis, to make a unified reference for all characters we encounter on the Internet.
Computers could easily understand each other with it, no matter what language they used.
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Reasons for Obj To Appear on Facebook?
If you’ve ever posted an image on Facebook and seen the letters OBJ appear below it, you might have wondered what it means. The answer is actually simple!
OBJ stands for object, and it represents the file type that the photo you just uploaded was saved as. This makes sense in terms of technical functionality, but it can still be confusing if you’re not used to seeing it.
Luckily, there are several different options when it comes to OBJ files, so knowing what they are isn’t particularly important unless you have specific needs from them!
In your Facebook feed, you will likely notice OBJ. It is actually not supposed to show up on your feed as Unicode should translate the emojis. It depends on whether a software update prevented Unicode from displaying a symbol or emoji.
You must know the technical details of OBJ on Facebook if you want to know what it means. Otherwise, it will be difficult to figure out what it means and find a true solution for the issue.
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Why Do You See OBJ On Facebook?
At this point it would be reasonable to ask: how could this happen? To be fair, wasn’t Unicode designed precisely to avoid this kind of problem?
Wrong. You’re not really seeing what you think you’re seeing. Typically, this symbol only shows up when the software you’re using cannot display a certain character from another software.
It’s referred to as an ‘object replacement character.’ The software can’t work out how to display an object, so it replaces it with a blank instead.
Let’s discuss a few reasons why you might see OBJ appear on your screen so that you can pick the one that most closely applies to your situation.
Reason 1: Software Error in Android
All of that is to say, a bug could cause Unicode not to interpret languages properly on your device, and as a result, you get an unusual dot-in-a-box problem on your screen. If you are using an Android device and you are still receiving the OBJ error, there may be a software bug.
Reason 2: Voice-to-Text in iPhone
Using dictation to compose comments or posts on an iPhone could lead to Facebook being Obstructed. The Apple operating system is more sophisticated than Facebook’s, and what the Apple translator hears may not be appropriate for Facebook to read. That’s why it uses OBJ to represent the symbols and characters it can’t show.
Reason 3: Apple’s Emoji Library
iPhone users are able to use the iOS emoji library updates, but Android users are unable to do the same. The emojis do not have an Android equivalent, so an emoji from iPhone may appear as an OBJ with a dotted box on Android. Facebook users with an updated Apple emoji library would be able to use the new feature they must be visible.
Removing OBJ from Facebook Post
If you see OBJ on your screen because of a bug in your device or the Facebook app, you can update your device to the latest OS. If this is the case, the update should remove OBJ from your Facebook account and replace it with the correct emoji.
If OBJ appears on Facebook due to iPhone’s features or emoji library, you’ll have to wait for Android or Facebook to catch up to iPhone’s progress and make emojis replace OBJ!
Conclusion
If this article doesn’t answer your question, what does OBJ mean on Facebook, we hope it is at least somewhat clear now. OBJ replaces the emojis on Facebook when your device cannot show them.
They could be a bug in the software, iOS’s emoji library, or a speech-to-text feature. The problem might lie in the emojis that you are seeing if the post was uploaded with the latest version of iOS, but you are on an Android phone.