If you have use emoji regularly, you might have noticed something unfortunate about the adorable and surprisingly expressive pictures. Because current Emoji are usually featured as Caucasian, Apple is working on bringing diversity to emoji icons.
“ Emojis around the world had to be updated sooner or later,” said Rick, a UHD Alumni.
Emma, a UHD sophomore, also agree that she can’t wait for the update because she loves to use emojis. The tech company hopes an update can include diversity found in the people.
“There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard,” reads a statement from Apple to MTV.
Apple explained that the emoji icons are based on the Unicode standard, which is used by many types of programs to display text and icons the same as one another. But because it is in the hands of a consortium and not solely in Apple’s control, the company can’t simply issue an update. Instead, it must first accept any changes to the Unicode standard.
John Morales, UHD business major replied, “I think it enables us to express ourselves more and they help the person we are texting with to understand better what we are feeling.” as an example a love face emoji can make someone feel more loved than a simple “I love you”
Emoji icons continue to be extremely popular among users who include them in their text messages, Instagram comments and in their tweets. The current icons include images of food, vehicles, animals, flowers and other options. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Tahj Mowry weren’t the only to complain about the lack of diversity. Numerous online petitions exist that call on Apple and other tech companies to add diversity to their emoji icons.
The petition also shines light on the keyboard’s debut of same sex couple emojis included in the iOS6 update. In fact, many emoji’s have duplicates and multiple versions, yet, there is still no Black, Latino, or Asian emojis. There’s no firm date for an emoji upgrade until the Unicode issue is sorted.
As always, Apple is keeping us in suspense, but here’s hoping it’s sooner than, say, the iPhone 20. With the new iOS7 reportedly launching this fall, people want Apple to consider adding more people of color to the popular text message characters.
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