iPhone owners will have more than 100 new emoji to choose from when Apple launches its iOS 10 software this fall.
The new characters appeared in the developer preview of the software on Monday, and the Cupertino, Calif.-based company provided an early look at what’s to come in a press release. The update will introduce new, more inclusive characters as well as redesigned versions of already existing emoji. These will include female versions of sports-oriented emoji, such as the addition of a female swimmer, biker, surfer, weight lifter and basketball player.
Professional emoji like the detective and construction worker symbols will also be getting a female counterpart with the software update, and Apple has already proposed new characters to the Unicode Consortium based on occupations like astronaut, artist, firefighter, judge and pilot. It’s unclear when those latter symbols will be approved, however.
Apple
The new family-themed emoji coming in iOS 10 will include new symbols to more accurately represent different types of families, as shown below. A rainbow flag character will also be added to the roster.
Apple
The update is another sign that tech companies are pushing for more diverse emoji representations. A group of Google employees proposed a batch of new emoji in May that would include female scientists, doctors and farmers, among other professions. Last month, Facebook unveiled a set of gender diverse emojis for its Messenger platform as well.
Interesting reading and yet another indicator of attitudes (little surprise between the similarity between Canadians and Americans). Of course, this is among those who use emojis, so likely skewed towards a younger demographic:
Canadians score highest in emoji categories some may consider to be more American (money, raunchy, violent, sports)
French use four times as many heart emoji than other languages, and it’s the only language for which a ‘smiley’ is not #1
Flowers and plants emoji are used at more than 4X the average rate by Arabic speakers
Russian speakers use three times as much romantic emoji than the average
Australia’s emoji use characterizes it as the land of vice & indulgence, using
double the average amount of alcohol-themed emoji, 65% more drug emoji than average and leading for both junk food and holiday emoji
Americans lead for a random assortment of emoji & categories, including skulls, birthday cake, fire, tech, LGBT, meat and female-oriented emoji
Multicultural Meanderings 