Have you ever encountered dotted OBJ box on your Facebook feed and wondered what does OBJ mean on Facebook? If yes, then here I have explained it in detail so that you can understand what it is and how to tackle it.
Let’s paint a vivid picture – you have written an interesting post over Facebook. It’s going great; your content is attractive, engaging, and fun to read. All it requires is that one emoji to give it a finishing touch. You enter the emoji and it’s looking perfect. You post whatever you’ve cooked up but when the post shows up on your feed, you cannot see the emoji. Instead, a weird, ugly dashed box with “OBJ” inscribed on it is replacing the emoji.
Sounds familiar?
The “OBJ” dashed box is hideous, to say the least. But what does obj in a dotted box mean on Facebook, and why is it showing up on your post?
What Does OBJ Mean on Facebook?
OBJ stands for an “object replacement character”. OBJ is a sort of substitute that appears as a placeholder in the place of an object that cannot be recognized. In other words, the OBJ error appears on your screen when there’s an object or a character on your screen that cannot be displayed or read.
People often get confused when they see those little dashed “OBJ” boxes on their Facebook feeds. You might soon start to notice the same dashed boxes on your friend’s posts as well. This might be true for some users, while others might be able to read all the characters without any OBJ errors.
Read Also: Does Facebook Notify Screenshots of Pictures and Stories?
How the OBJ Error Works on Facebook?
Have you been coming across these weird, hideous boxes with [OBJ] inscribed on your Facebook posts? The term ‘OBJ’ simply stands for an object, which further unrolls to spell out “object replacement character”.
So how are these OBJ errors surfacing on your Facebook feed? On the internet, everything you see (from the characters to the images) is treated as “objects” that your screen displays. So when you encounter a [OBJ] box on your Facebook feed, it implies that there is some object in your post that your screen is unable to display. So the [OBJ] box is serving as a placeholder in Unicode.
Unicode stands for the Universal Code of Character Sets. Unicode is pivotal to ensure that all the common characters or symbols that we use over the internet have some standard representation. This allows different machines can understand and display these characters easily without any form of language barriers.
This is for Facebook posts, but you might be facing the same problem on Instagram as well as Facebook texts. So what does OBJ mean in text? The answer is the same – you might be using some unrecognized character on your text that your screen cannot display.
Why does the Dotted OBJ Box Appear on Your Facebook Feed?
So why am I seeing this OBJ error? The Unicode is put in place to avoid situations like this. But sometimes, because of influencing factors like software bugs, translation gaps between different software, and other glitches, we see placeholders instead of particular objects.
There might be three might reasons why you could be encountering the OBJ error –
1. You use Voice-to-Text Feature on iPhone
The OBJ error occurs most commonly when iPhone users are trying to use their Voice-to-Text features to write their messages or posts. However, the Apple translator has a different way of encoding different characters and symbols that Facebook cannot recognize. As a result, it uses the OBJ placeholder in place of the unrecognized characters.
2. Apple Might Have Updated their Emoji Directory
Another common reason behind the OBJ error is Apple or Android updating their emoji library. When this happens, only you and the other users who have also updated their emoji libraries would be able to see your text properly. For others, the screen will display the OBJ placeholder in place of the updated emoji.
3. Software Glitch
If you are sure that neither of the above reasons is causing the OBJ errors to surface on your phone, then you might be in for a tough ride. There might be some software bugs that might be triggering these errors. The glitch or the bug might have corrupted many characters, images, or symbols that you are using in your posts, forcing your screen to display the OBJ placeholder instead of the corrupted object.
The bug could either be in your Facebook mobile app or might be an issue related to your emoji or font libraries. The only feasible solution to this kind of problem is to try and update your app or your device’s operating system to try your luck again.
Conclusion
The OBJ error is not as grave an issue like a virus outbreak in your system or device. However, it is annoying and restricts the user experience when they’re trying to have a nice time on their social media. In this article, we discussed what does mean OBJ on Facebook, what might be triggering these errors, and how to deal with them.
