Your iPhone’s emoji are about to get a lot more racially diverse.
In the new versions of Apple’s (AAPL) iOS and OS X operating systems, the available emoji will include a wider range of skin colors. In order to access the new skin tones, you’ll select an emoji, then hold and tap your preferred appearance.
Here’s a look at what the new emoji look like, via screenshots of beta software:
https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/569934035990003713
@ispazio nuove emoji iOS 8.3 b2 pic.twitter.com/dgNhJrwwov
— Andre (@AndLup) February 23, 2015
Mas nuevos emojis en iOS 8.3 pic.twitter.com/CAYmiHS8xu
— J L (@JrgL__) February 23, 2015
Apple was able to add the new racially diverse emoji after changes on the part of the Unicode Consortium, an industry standards group that determines which emoji will be available to smartphone users. The Consortium first proposed the skin tone swatch idea back in November 2014 amid increasing criticism of emoji’s lack of diversity.
The new Apple beta software also included some entirely new emoji, like an Apple Watch. The new emoji should be included in the public release of the next versions of iOS and OS X, but it’s unclear when exactly that will happen.
