Apple vowed to update its emoji characters in all iOS-based devices after complains from Miley Cyrus and actor Tahj Mowry about emoticons' lack of diversity was escalated to Tim Cook.
Apple Inc., the second largest smartphone maker around the world, responded to criticism from Miley Cyrus and actor Tahj Mowry about the lack of racially diverse emoticons on iOS devices. The Cupertino-based tech giant promised to update its emoticons library with a new batch of faces, filled with more diverse emojis. In a response statement sent to MTV Act's Joey Parker, who first escalated the concern to Apple's CEO Tim Cook this week, Katie Cotton, Apple's vice president of worldwide corporate communications, said Apple is working with Unicode Consortium to bring the change.
"Tim [Cook] forwarded your email to me. We agree with you. Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms," Cotton said in an email statement to MTV Act's Parker. "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."
The specific release date for the new set of emojis was not mentioned in the note. The demand for more diverse emojis was made more that a year back. In December 2012, Miley Cyrus first tweeted her disregard for the lack of diversity among the current 800+ emojis. The tweet managed to get 6,000+ RTs, which is more than the signatures on an unofficial petition filed for the same cause.
RT if you think there needs to be an #emojiethnicityupdate
— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) December 19, 2012
Earlier this month, "Baby Daddy" star Tahj Mowry brough up the subject, which was almost dormant for over a year.
It makes me mad that there are no black emojis... — Tahj Mowry (@Tahj_Mowry) March 16, 2014
When MTV Act's Parker decided to bring the subject to Apple's notice, it wasn't too long before a response arrived in his email inbox. Apple's previous update to its emoji set was in 2012, as a part of the iOS6 update, according to The Verge. The update included emojis of gay and lesbian couples, without requiring users to install any third-party apps to access the special characters.
Since the iOS7 update did not bring any changes to the emojis, users might have to wait until the next iOS8 update arrives. Dates of that happening are not yet available. It could also be that Apple will play a trump card and bring the promised emojis in its next iOS7 update. (There is no emoticon for fingers crossed, is there?).
