Apple iOS Has Become More Inclusive with Emoji Update
Representation of diversity is important; Apple’s new emoji push gender neutrality further into public awareness.
Last week Apple announced some exciting new additions to their emoji keyboard. Now iPhone users will be able to choose gender-neutral icons. This update to the keyboard lets Apple’s gender-neutral consumers know that they are seen.
New in iOS 13.2: A gender-neutral option for nearly all human emojis 🧛♀️ / 🧛 / 🧛♂️ pic.twitter.com/ZFKhQhNhwk
— Emojipedia 📙 (@Emojipedia) October 28, 2019
There are several other useful emoji additions that will make the keyboard feel more inclusive for everyone. Among these new emoji are a wheelchair emoji, and hearing aid emoji.
They will also now allow users to change the skin tone of individual emoji’s in the couple emoji so that a more diverse group of relationships may be represented. Over the past few years, the company has attempted to increase inclusivity on their keyboard.
Until now, iOS hasn’t permitted any emoji with two or more people to change skin tone. That will change this year. pic.twitter.com/pDOenQse3X
— Emojipedia 📙 (@Emojipedia) July 16, 2019
These efforts are monumental for those who don’t identify as any specific gender as well as other minorities. Bringing gender neutrality mainstream is an important stepping stone in the comprehension of the term. Emoji updates may seem insignificant to some, but they are a new form of language. We applaud Apple for making sure that the language we use doesn’t exclude anyone.
