Emoji are strange for a few reasons. One is that different operating systems render them in different ways. Apparently, another is that different versions of the same operating system can do the same thing.
Apple recently updated iOS to have a lot more emoji diversity. You can pick various skin colors for many of the emoji, and there are many more permutations of possible combinations of people. So you can now send emojis like these:
What I sent...
This is a good sample of the new emojis. A black baby, black santa, and a black officer, followed by two ladies with a heart in between, and two ladies blowing kisses at each other. I have no problem with any of this (in fact, I am a huge fan of it, particularly with regard to black santa). But I sent the above text (which is, as far as I can tell, meaningless) to someone with a less updated iPhone. And this was what was recieved:
What was delivered.
I don't even know what to do with this. At least the "girl heart girl" and "girl heart kiss girl" combos approximate their newer, single-emoji versions, but I'm not sure what it means that the black emojis are rendered as their white counterparts, followed by an alien.
So strange. Anyway, be ye warned.