In celebration of World Emoji Day, Apple unveiled some of the new emoji coming to iOS, macOS and watchOS later this year.
"The new emoji make it easier for users to express themselves with greater diversity, additional animals and creatures, new smiley faces and more," said an Apple Newsroom update.
The preview includes emoji options such as a zombie, a coconut, T-Rex, a 'mind blown' smiley, a woman with a headscarf, a man with a beard, and a woman breastfeeding.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, also made the announcement on Twitter:
????? Happy #WorldEmojiDay! ? We’ve got some ? new ones to show you, coming later this year! ?? https://t.co/xBR9ZJ7l4g pic.twitter.com/fhDrr4J5KG
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) July 17, 2017
The emoji are Apple's interpretation of 69 new symbols approved this year by the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit group that sets the global standard for emoji and text characters, according to a report from CNN.
Once symbols are approved by Unicode, Software makers like Apple and Google can then design versions for their own platforms.
To further celebrate World Emoji Day, the Apple Newsroom update announced that the App Store will be highlighting apps to create or do fun things with emoji, and iTunes Movies is featuring emoji in place of select movie titles.
thanhb@sph.com.sg
