Apple has revealed an array of new emoji that will come to iPads and iPhones with the upcoming introduction of iOS 11.1.
In all likelihood, one of the most popular will be the “I Love You” gesture—a hand with the middle two fingers curled in and the pinky, forefinger and thumb stretched out. This is a gesture that moved from deaf culture into the mainstream several decades ago, having been derived from the American Sign Language sign for “I Love You.”
It’s also very close to the so-called “devil horns” gesture used by fans of heavy rock, which differs in that the thumb is curled in rather than extended (and which has its own, separate emoji). Indeed, the similarity is such that KISS star Gene Simmons tried earlier this year to trademark the “I Love You” gesture as his own devil-horns variant, before changing his mind in the face of heavy criticism.
Other notable additions to Apple’s emoji roster include a depiction of a woman wearing a headscarf, an image representing breastfeeding, a zombie, someone in the lotus position, foodstuffs ranging from sandwiches to broccoli, and—just in time for winter—clothing items such as scarves and gloves.
Of course, Apple doesn’t come up with these ideas itself—they are just the company’s own spin on emoji that are approved by the Unicode Consortium in order to let people send symbols between different communications platforms while retaining their meaning.
Apple will probably release iOS 11.1 sometime in the coming month. Apart from introducing new emoji, the beta version of the software update is reportedly being used to test out the new Apple Pay Cash person-to-person payment platform.
