The world collectively rejoiced back in November when Unicode, the developer behind emoji, announced that emoji would come in various skin tones in 2015. Now we finally get to know what these new, diverse emoji will look like.
Apple gave developers a preview of the emoji through beta updates of OS X and iOS made available today. When Apple rolls out the new keyboard, you'll be able to hold down an emoji featuring people, faces or hands and then select one of six skin tones, according to The Next Web.
Each emoji representing people on Apple platforms now offers a choice of skin color, with abstract color as the base. pic.twitter.com/VsksabEjmM
— Jordan Kay (@_Jordan) February 23, 2015
Yeah, most people are thinking exactly what you're thinking: What's with the yellow skin tone? And, of course, some Twitter chatter has already erupted over the unrealistic and potentially offensive color choice.
Nice to see Apple finally recognize jaundice victims in OS X 10.10.3's emoji set. pic.twitter.com/A36ux4CAiv — Gabe Rivera (@gaberivera) February 23, 2015
The yellow is sort of... wut. RT @YahooTech Apple just showed off its new, diverse emoji for the first time pic.twitter.com/Mz8VaIxbcK — Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) February 23, 2015
yellow is sooooooo yellow. https://t.co/VHMzHsDi6o via @TheNextWeb pic.twitter.com/WnYPFlTMCq — christina lu (@christlu) February 23, 2015
Things that are as yellow as Apple's new emoji: - the sun - yellow traffic light - lego people - lemons - sunflowers pic.twitter.com/a3AVLpTSfF
— Alton Wang (@altonwang) February 23, 2015
Those literally bright yellow emoji are... something. — Connor Goldsmith (@dreamoforgonon) February 23, 2015
What ethnic group is the yellow emoji supposed to represent? Is Obama finally recognizing the humanity of The Simpson's characters? — JiggaBoolean Logic (@Hurrikane_IKE) February 23, 2015
However, the explanation for the bright yellow skin tone might be that it's not really supposed to represent a skin tone at all. It might just be a representation of the standard emoji yellow put in a more human-like form instead of just being used in your regular old winky face.
(The yellow emoji aren’t meant to represent a skin tone. They’re default emoji yellow. Tap to hold to get one of the five skin tone choices)
— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) February 23, 2015
In accordance with this new diversity push, Apple has also expanded upon its flags of the world selection, bringing the total up to 32. Some of the new additions include Turkey, South Africa and Colombia.
Naturally, some of the tech device emoji have also been updated. Most notably is the fact that a watch is now an Apple Watch and the iPhone has been updated to an iPhone 6 model.
Community: Apple updates Emoji in latest OS X & iOS betas w/ Apple Watch, iPhone and Mac icons https://t.co/W6R6NiqCSi pic.twitter.com/XLwommXJsc — 9to5Mac (@9to5mac) February 23, 2015
Hey, you can't blame Apple for slipping those changes in, now can you?
Image: Intel Free Press / Flickr
