TECH BREAK: Apple adds 70 new emoji with iOS 12.1 update
An illustration of emoji. Apple will be bringing more than 70 new emoji to iPhone and iPad users in the iOS 12.1 update. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Icons have been added to represent additional food items and sports equipment.
- There is a new emoji for bald people, and there will be more emotive smiley faces.
- Additional emoji representing animals such as a kangaroo, lobster, llama, mosquito, raccoon, and swan will also be available.
On World Emoji Day in July, Apple teased that they will be releasing new emoji and on Wednesday, the company confirmed that it’s bringing more than 70 new emoji to iPhone and iPad users in the iOS 12.1 update.
The new emoji rollout will begin with developer and public betas that are being released and will be available in upcoming software updates for iOS, macOS and watchOS.
FOOD, SPORTS AND MORE
In the case with new emoji releases, icons have been added to represent additional food items and users will now be able to send a bagel, salt, luggage, compass, hiking boot, softball, Frisbee, and celebratory elements.
Some of the new characters will include red hair, grey hair and curly hair, a new emoji for bald people, more emotive smiley faces which will include a freezing face and a face with watering eyes.
Additional emoji representing animals such as a kangaroo, lobster, llama, mosquito, raccoon, and swan will also be available.
According to Apple, the latest emoji come from characters approved for Unicode 11.0. The company is still working to bring more disability-themed emoji to the 2019 release of Unicode 12.0.
“Emoji are used by people all over the world to communicate. iOS 12.1 brings even more characters to the keyboard that better represent global users, including new emoji for moon cake, red gift envelope and nazar amulet,” said Apple on its website.
For the past several years, Apple users have gotten dozens of new emoji annually and developers and users of Apple’s iOS public betas can start using the new emoji.
The Unicode Consortium, the governing body responsible for approving new emoji designs, typically approves the new characters for all platforms sometime around February, then they roll out on various devices and services over the course of the next several months.
