Tara
Android users/emoji lovers rejoice! Google’s most recent update for the operating system features 236 new emojis – many of which will be gender-neutral by default.
The Android 10 operating system, released on Google Pixel smartphones today (September 3) and soon to be rolled out across Android, is the first to adhere to Unicode’s guidelines which state that: “Human-form emoji should normally be depicted in a gender-neutral way unless gender appearance is explicitly specified.”
Nearly 800 existing emoji designs have been tweaked in the update, with more than 300 of these modifications being made to present in a more gender-neutral way.
Jeremy Burge, chief emoji officer at Emojipedia, tweeted: “Short of having no humans in the emoji set, having a neutral option by default makes a bunch of sense: more consistent UI, more inclusive for plenty of peeps, and more flexible conversationally.”
Previously, you had to choose a man or woman emoji to represent gender-neutrality, depending on the likeness of the cartoon. Now, hundreds of emojis will present as gender-neutral by default (extra points for the extremely cool gender-neutral vampire).
New emojis also include a guide and service dog, a deaf person, wheelchair users and robotic arms and legs (great for writing about sex robots).
The inclusive emojis are a big step forward from Google’s infamous blobs that the tech giant introduced back in 2014.
If you’re still not excited by the revisions, new research by The Kinsey Institute revealed that people who frequently use emoji have more sex than those who don’t. Get updating 😈🤳🍆
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