If you find yourself struggling to express yourself with mere words and turn to emojis, then we have good news – Apple has unveiled a first look at some of the new emoji designs that are heading to iOS devices later this year.
There’s a total of 59 new emoji designs, with some celebrating diversity, as well as fun new additions to existing categories too, introducing everything from new disability-themed emojis to a yawning smiley face and a flamingo.
One of Apple’s biggest changes is launching a major update to the ‘holding hands’ emoji, typically used to represent couples and relationships, as users can now select any combination of skin tone and gender to personalise the couple in the emoji to represent their relationship.
There will also be more disability-themed icons in line with Apple’s proposal to the Unicode Consortium, with new emojis that depict guide dogs, hearing aids, prosthetic arms and legs, wheelchair users, and many more
“This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all possible depictions of disabilities, but to provide an initial starting point for greater representation for diversity within the emoji universe,” Apple clarified in its proposal to the Unicode Consortium last year.
As for the animals and food updates, you’ll finally be able to sum up your weekend without saying a word with the launch of the sloth and waffle emojis (just us?). There’s also new flamingo and orangutan emojis, or falafel and garlic emojis.
And for the Android users, don’t fret – Google has also confirmed it will be launching 65 new emojis, including sloths, otters, waffles and garlic, as well as gender inclusive designs, emojis for service and guide dogs, a Diya lamp emoji for Diwali celebrations and more couple combinations too.
Android users will be able to use the new emojis with the launch of Android Q, while Apple users will be able to access the new designs with a free software update for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, coming later this year.