Apple is following in Google's footsteps when it comes to releasing more emojis that promote gender equality.
The company announced on Monday, August 1, that more than 100 emojis will be available with the fall release of iOS 10, with the focus on bringing more representations of strong and successful female characters.
Among these new emojis, included will be the female versions of the runner, surfer, basketball player and weightlifter — just in time to send texts and tweets featuring them when talking about the women competing in the 2016 Olympics.
Along with the new women athletes, Apple is also adding the female versions of many professions to support diversity in the workplace. These include female engineers, detectives and construction workers.
Now, finally, women can be seen in the world of texting as more than just getting their hair done and being princesses or a wife.
Of course, all these mentioned emojis will be available in various skin tones.
There will also be more diverse family units, including the emoji to represent a single mom as well as a single dad. iOS 10 will also include a rainbow flag emoji to celebrate gay pride.
While some of the 100-plus emojis are new ones, including the female athletes and professionals, others are redesigns of preexisting characters.
After voicing its concerns (along with Google) to have the Unicode Consortium remove the rifle emoji — which was a success — Apple redesigned the pistol to now be a lime green water gun.
New emojis have been expected to be released with Apple's latest software update after the Unicode Consortium approved new characters as part of Unicode 9.0. These include fun food emojis like one for bacon, a pickle and pancakes, as well as a pregnant woman, male dancer and fist bump.
Apple's iOS 10 also brings with it a new feature for QuickType, which includes emoji suggestions based on the word the user is typing. Users can also highlight words and tap on them for those to be replaced with an emoji. This means users will be able to use the beloved characters more easily and more quickly than ever.
Even though there are some people testing iOS 10 via Apple's public beta program, the new emojis will first roll out for developer accounts and then for the public beta.
The public release of iOS 10 is then expected for the fall.
Source: Apple
