A method for symbolic communication performed by a symbol server including a server processor, a server memory and a database containing billable and non-billable symbols, the billable symbols representing products or services, each billable symbol being associated with a merchant that registers with the system, and having a billing rate associated with its use, and a communication device including a device processor and a device memory and a touch-based graphical user interface display, and including a subset of the billable and non-billable symbols obtained from the symbol server, the symbol server and the communication device configured to:
- initiate, by the symbol server, a population of symbols in the database of symbols using indirect symbol harvesting which allows the symbol server to search and acquire symbols from the internet, wherein each symbol populated using indirect symbol harvesting is associated with alphabetic words or phrases by a system administrator of the symbol server;
- register, by the symbol server, the merchant to contract billable symbols;
- populate, by the symbol server, the billable symbols submitted by the merchant in the database using commercial symbol harvesting, wherein the commercial symbol harvesting allow the merchant to contract billing information and submit a plurality of the billable symbols with respective dynamic billing rate for each of the billable symbols populated, wherein the dynamic billing rate for each billable symbol is based on a time of day, geography and store location;
- populate, by the symbol server, additional symbols submitted by a user in the database using at least one method selected from a group consisting of direct symbol harvesting, blind symbol harvesting, and genius symbol harvesting, wherein each of the additional symbols populated is associated with respective alphabetic words or phrases, wherein the direct symbol harvesting allows users to submit each additional symbol with an association of the respective alphabetic words or phrases, wherein the blind symbol harvesting allows the users to participate in games that validate the association of respective alphabetic words or phrases with the additional symbol, wherein the genius symbol harvesting allows a self-identified expert user to validate the association of respective alphabetic words or phrases with the additional symbol;
- compose, by a user of the communication device, the message using the alphabetic words or phrases;
- request, by the user of the communication device, via the touch-based graphical user interface, consensus-popular symbols relevant to the alphabetic words or phrases used in the composition of the message;
- parse, by the symbol server, alphabetic words and phrases used in the message to configure a dynamic series of symbol selection wheels for display on the communication device;
- configure, by the symbol server, for display on the touch-based graphical user interface of the communication device, the dynamic series of symbol selection wheels including consensus-popular symbols which sequentially correspond to the relevant alphabetic words and phrases used in the message, wherein the consensus-popular symbols are ranked based on the usage count of each symbol across all messages previously sent by all users, wherein the consensus-popular symbols displayed on each respective wheel include the highest ranked symbols relative to the respective alphabetic word or phrase parsed in the message;
- display, via the communication device, on the touch-based graphical user interface and overlaying a touch keyboard, a first symbol selection wheel, from the configured dynamic series of symbol selection wheels, which corresponds to a first alphabetic word or phrase associated with a consensus-popular symbol, wherein the user can further select additional symbols through a symbol keyboard not presented on the touch-based graphical user interface;
- select, by the user of the communication device, the consensus popular symbols from the first symbol selection wheel, wherein additional symbol selection wheels are each displayed in sequential order relative to the remaining unselected consensus-popular symbols based on the configured dynamic series of symbol selection wheels;
- convert, by the symbol server, the respective alphabetic words and phrases to user selected consensus-popular symbols in the message;
- send, by the user of the communication device, the message from the communication device to a second communication device using either a texting application or an email application;
- count, by the symbol server, each symbol used in the message,
- store, by the symbol server, the count in the database, and
- bill, by the symbol server, the merchant for the use of each billable symbol in a message, using the billing rate associated with the billable symbol.