Apple have released new black and Asian emoticons amisdt criticism that it’s emojis lack diversity.
Last year, Mauritus based company Oju Africa, came up with the idea to have black emoticons to represent those with darker complexions, however this was only available on android systems.
A year later, Apple has finally upped its game by now including multicultural emojis which are currently being trialled iOS X 10.10.3 and iOS 8.3 beta 2, following its promise to make emoticons more diverse, after making the following statement last March.
“There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.”
In this update, users will be able to select a different ‘race’ of emoji, by holding down the desired icon and choosing from the various characters.
Despite the fact it has not been released yet, Apple’s collaboration with Unicode Consortium, who in previous years controlled the emoticons, has come under fierce criticism; particularly from the Asian community.
Why? Because the emojis created to represent the Asian community were a bright yellow Simpson like colour; clearly not an accurate representation of Asians.
“Whoever has a Bright yellow skin-tone? What does that even mean, Jaundice?” one tweeter complained. “Bright yellow emoji for Asians is racist enough, dear Apple.”
Alpesh Patel, owner of Oju Africa also criticised Apple’s mediocre attempt to embrace other ethnicities, saying they ‘missed the point’.
“Look at their new emoticons — it’s all about skin colour,” he told Vice’s Motherboard. “Diversity is not about skin colour — it’s about embracing the multiple cultures out there that have no digital representation.”
The multicultural emoticons will be available to iPhone users in the next IOS update.
