You may know someone who sends messages with more emojis than words, but chances are they don't need those symbols to communicate. For some with language disorders such as aphasia, a disorder that can make it difficult to read, talk, or write, emojis can be an ideal way for those with the disorder to communicate with others around them. Samsung Electronics Italia, the company's Italian subsidiary, just came out with a new app called Wemogee that helps those with language disorders talk to others by using emoji-based messages.

Wemogee focuses on "bringing all users together again" regardless of their language abilities. Samsung worked with Italian speech therapist Francesca Polini to translate more than 140 sentence units from text into emoji strings, sequences of emojis that accurately convey the meaning of sentences. For example, "How are you?" turns into a smiley face, an "ok" hand gesture, and a question mark on a single line.

The app has two modes, visual and textual, and users can choose which mode they prefer. In visual mode, users send an emoji-based message, and the receiver will get it either as an emoji sequence if they're in visual mode as well, or as a text message if they're in textual mode. On the flip side, those in textual mode can send text messages that show up as emojis for those in visual mode. The app can also be used to assist face-to-face interactions for quicker and more accurate communication. Wemogee's promotional video shows a screen in the app with a message written in words and emojis, allowing both users to understand the conversation regardless of language capacity.

Wemogee's pre-translated messages are organized into six macro-categories, including emergency, food, and emotions, that are designed to cover most daily interactions. With just 140 sentences, users won't be able to have specialized conversations, but they will be able to communicate basic needs and thoughts—things that would be hard for those with aphasia and other language disorders to convey at all.

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, aphasia is often caused by stroke, but any disease or accident that injures the parts of the brain that control language can cause aphasia. Approximately one million people suffer from aphasia in the US, and it's known that people with aphasia can communicate better by gesturing and drawing pictures. Wemogee digitizes that method, making it faster and more efficient, while also making it easier for non-aphasic people to understand loved ones with language disorders.

Wemogee is currently available with messages in English and Italian and is free to download from the Google Play Store. An iOS app is coming soon.

Listing image by YouTube, Samsung Italia