Some of the new options for gender-neutral people.Īpple is not the first tech company to produce a gender-neutral emoji, but it may be the most impactful one to do so. Instead of having to pick an icon sporting traditional gendered characteristics - like the male emoji with mustaches and female emoji with eyelash-lined eyes - users now have "a whole new way to express themselves that isn't gendered," says Jean-Marie Navetta, a spokesperson for a LGBTQ-inclusive family organization called PFLAG.
The addition of a third option for human emoji has already been met with praise online from members of the LGBTQ community, who say they're happy to have an emoji that looks more like them. The third "gender neutral" option for each human emoji is meant to appear more gender-inclusive and androgynous, with hair that falls above the shoulders and an outfit that's gray rather than the gender-signaling purple-clad female and blue-wearing male icons. Many of the new emoji, as documented by Emojipedia, focus on inclusivity: There are symbols for deaf and blind people, and options to choose the skin color of each person in emoji featuring multiple people.īut one of the starkest changes comes with the addition of a third option for the slew of human-like emoji - from rock star, to zombie, to dancing twins - that's neither the female nor male-appearing choices that have historically existed on the iOS emoji keyboard.
The latest iOS software update started rolling out earlier this week to iPhone users, and with it came dozens of new emoji for users to add to their text messages, contact names, and social media posts. Apple has taken a step to make its emoji more inclusive and less binary with the additional of a "gender-neutral" option for nearly every human emoji in its system.