New inclusive-themed emoji for iOS and Android announced on World Emoji Day

Welcome to the modern world, where there’s a day dedicated to little icons we send each other in lieu of typing actual words. 

But really though, emoji is a digital lingua franca in itself with its own emotional nuances and context that’s universal across all languages and cultures. I could probably write this entire article using just emoji and everyone would perfectly understand (okay, let’s not get too far into this). 

Anyway, happy emoji day everyone! The first set of emoji was created in ’99 by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita, who wanted to design a way to convey information simply and succinctly. The result is 176 pixel images that can be picked and sent as characters in an early Japanese mobile internet platform called i-mode.

Though the service has now been eclipsed by modern messaging apps, Kurita’s creations live on today as millennial lexicon. Usage of emoji blew up properly outside Japan after Apple added official emoji support in iOS keyboards in 2011, while Google eventually did the same for Android two years later. It’s become such a thing that there are various emoji translating services online and even a movie about emoji (though the lesser said about that, the better). 

On a day deemed to be a “global celebration of emoji”, the gift that everyone gets is… more emoji icons to send out. Emojipedia today previewed the set of new ones coming later this year and one of the big highlights is inclusivity — an update to the Holding Hands emoji will let users select any combination of skin tone and gender. There’re even disability-inclusive emoji, providing more representation of icons like hearing aids, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, and (very good) guide dogs. 

Aside from those, there’s also the addition of a menstruation icon for women to easily communicate about that time of the month, represented by a drop of blood. As well as some other fun stuff like a sloth, a plate of falafel, a yawning face, and a finger-pinching hand, which will surely be used to insult one another about the sizes of certain appendages. 

The new icons will hit iOS “this fall” and on Android Q later this year. Check out the whole list on Emojipedia. 

ilyas@asiaone.com