The addition of emojis on older smartphones when texting could see you foot a much larger phone bill, a new report has found.
According to Money Saving Expert, users of older Samsung and Apple smartphones have racked up huge bills after the addition of emojis into text messages, despite having packages with comprehensive text allowances.
The consumer website also added that users creating their own icons from full-stops, commas and brackets had also been transformed into emoticons, and being charged as of emojis.
Money Saving Expert managing editor Guy Anker was told the BBC: "We have seen many complaints from our users who have racked up huge bills for sending what they thought were text messages."
"It is worth complaining to mobile phone providers if this was not made clear enough to you when you would be charged for a picture message."
However, operators EE and O2 noted that handsets are to blame for transforming texts into picture messages rather than the settings associated with the provider.
Around 4% of Ofcom survey respondents were hit with high bills after emoticons were billed as picture messages.
Users are also advised to use free text messaging services including Apple’s iMessage or WhatsApp.
