Apple iOS 8.3 Will Have 300 New Emojis, Including Racially Diverse Options

Emojis are small digital images that are accessible through virtual keyboards used for expressing emotions on smartphones, tablets and PCs. If you enjoy using emojis on your iPhone, then you may be happy to hear that 300 more have been added to the keyboard in iOS 8.3. The current set of emojis include an Asian man wearing a gua pi mao cap and an Indian man wearing a turban, but there are no black people represented. This will change when Apple AAPL -2.6% devices are updated with iOS 8.3 because several of the tiny cartoon emojis will be available in six new skin tones.

Apple is also adding many more relationship- and gadget-related emojis. For example, same-sex relationship emojis like families with two mothers and two fathers will be added. The new gadget emojis that are being added includes an iPhone 6 and an Apple Watch as a replacement to the traditional watch digital image. Emojis for 32 more country flags will also be added in iOS 8.3. iOS 8.3 is available for developers now and should be released to the public within the next few months. The diverse emoji options will be applied to the new version of Mac OS X too.

New emojis / Credit: Apple

Created in Japan in the 90’s, emojis were eventually incorporated into Unicode. The Unicode Consortium finalizes the icons to ensure a consistent experience across multiple platforms. Last November, the Unicode Consortium said that they are planning to have more diverse emojis in 2015. “Apple supports and cares deeply about diversity, and is working with The Unicode Consortium to update the standard so that it better represents diversity for all of us,” said an Apple spokesperson via ABC.

What else can we expect from iOS 8.3?

iOS 8.3 will be a major update because many new features are being added to this version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Some of the features will center around wireless CarPlay support. Apple’s voice assistant Siri will have support for seven more languages — Russian, Dutch, Thai, Danish, Turkish, Swedish and Portuguese. iOS 8.3 also includes performance improvements on the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5. And it will support Apple Pay in China.

iOS 8.3 is reportedly going to be released in public beta before rolling out to every device so that Apple can prevent potential software bugs, according to 9to5Mac’s sources. If this rumor is true, then it would be the first time that Apple makes a beta for an iPhone update available to the public.

Yellow emoji controversy

Many people complained about the bright yellow skin tone in the new emojis. “Apple rolling out new racially diverse emoji! Not sure how I’m feeling about these ultra-yellow Asian emoji,” tweeted Yurie Kwon, an associate account executive at SutherlandGold Group. The yellow emoji would be offensive if it was were to represent Asians, but it is not supposed to be viewed as an Asian person.

The yellow emoji has been a standard hue for icons for years and represents a “generic (nonhuman)” default, according to The Washington Post. Before Apple started supporting the digital images, even the earliest emojis in the 90’s included in Japanese messaging programs and AOL AOL -0.2% Instant Messenger used yellow faces. The yellow face emojis seem to trace back to the iconic yellow smiley face designed by Harvey Ball BLL -0.55% in the 60′s that said “have a nice day.”

The new emoji characters with six skin tones are based on the Fitzpatrick Classification scale, which was founded by dermatologist Thomas Fitzpatrick at Harvard Medical School in 1975. These skin tones are based on how well each one reacts to UV rays, said the Unicode Consortium in their emoji diversity plan.

Do you enjoy using emojis? What are your thoughts about the new diverse emojis? Let us know in the comments section below!

What is your opinion? Do you think that society will be affected by this type of emoji set? Please give an answer in the comments section of this post.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2015/02/24/apple-ios-8-3-will-have-300-new-emojis-including-racially-diverse-options/