With iOS 10, your iPhone’s emojis are about to get more diverse than ever

By Christian de Looper August 1, 2016

apple iphone 6s battery air 7835 2 970x647 c — Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

The emojis on your iPhone are about to get more diverse than ever. Apple has announced a new set of emojis for iOS 10 that will depict women in sports, as well as a rainbow flag character.

Included in the update will be a female swimmer, runner, surfer, and cyclist. Not only that, but the upcoming set of emojis will include new family characters, such as a single mother and single father with children.

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Of course, Apple’s not the only one working to make emojis a little more diverse. Google recently announced a number of new emojis set to appear in future versions of Android. Among the new emojis are female versions of 33 already-existing emojis, and 11 new emojis showing women in professional settings.

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As mentioned, the iOS 10 update will include a rainbow flag emoji, which was proposed as an addition last month. On top of that, Apple recently proposed five emoji that look like they could be either men or women — a judge, artist, astronaut, pilot, and firefighter.

Apple has been playing a much larger role in the emojis that appear on the iPhone of late. The company is a member of the Unicode Consortium, which is the group that approves new emoji before they get pushed to phones. Apple was reportedly opposed to recent proposed emojis that depicted rifles, which were supposed to roll out in a set of 72 new emojis released last month. The symbols were supposed to be tied to the upcoming Olympics, and Microsoft reportedly agreed with Apple on having them removed. It’s not totally clear why the companies wanted the emojis removed, but the emojis have been criticized by gun-control activists.

The new emojis should roll out later this year alongside iOS 10.

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