Apple has revealed the new emoji coming to iPhones this month, including a redesigned syringe, a bearded woman and Apple-branded headphones.
There are 217 new emoji, as well as a few updates of existing designs, for iOS 14.5, the new version of Apple’s mobile operating system.
Two hundred of the 217 new emoji in this release will let smartphone users choose from a more ‘inclusive set of couples’.
Popular emoji like ‘couples kissing’ and ‘couples with heart’ are now available with more variations of skin tones and genders.
There is also now the option to choose either a woman with a beard or a man with a beard, rather than just a person with a beard as before, also in a range of skin tones.
Apple has removed the blood from the syringe emoji in iOS 14.5, making it more versatile to represent vaccination and take into account the current pandemic.
The ‘version 13.1’ list of new emoji was revealed by Emojipedia, which is part of the Unicode Consortium, the central bank of all approved emoji, last autumn.
Companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft apply stylised versions of the consortium’s designs to their own operating systems – and this is the first look at Apple’s.
The full set of 217 Apple emoji will arrive on iOS 14.5, which is expected later in February, although a public beta version is already available now.
‘Most emojis these days provide an option for a gender inclusive default, or a specific gender can be chosen to show an emoji as a woman or man,’ said Emojipedia in a blog post.
‘Consistent gender options are available for the bearded person in iOS 14.5, with choices for woman or man added in the latest beta.’
Emojipedia lists all 217 new emoji for version 13.1 on its website, complete with how the variations will look on Android, Google’s operating system.
*All images were sourced from Emojipedia.
