Interracial Couple Emojis Are Finally Here
Wordless communication just got more inclusive.
Following a petition started by the dating app Tinder, emoji keyboards will now have 71 new variants of the couple emoji. The latest release of pictographs will include four combinations of gender and a variety of skin tone combinations — a much more representative selection, considering the previous iterations of people holding hands only included the default yellow skin tone.
The much-needed additions were a result of the Interracial Couple Emoji Project, started by Tinder in February of 2018. “We believe that no one should ever feel unrepresented or unseen,” stated the campaign. “Love is universal, and it’s time for interracial couples to be represented in our universal language.” The petition — which also notes a significant increase in interracial couples since the app’s founding in 2014 — resulted in over 50,000 signatures. “Tinder advocates for the freedom of people to live how they want to live and love who they want to love,” said Tinder CMO Jenny Campbell in the statement. “The success of our Interracial Couple Emoji campaign shows how powerful the voices are of the more than 50,000 people who joined our cause by signing our petition; together, we effected change.”
View a preview of the interracial couple emojis now over at Mashable.
Unicode Consortium, the non-profit responsible for emoji decisions, announced the updates in the fall of last year and released final designs this week. The company first addressed diversity within the image-focused language in 2014 when a range of skin tones was introduced to the keyboard. Also included in the new 2019 emojis are a wheelchair, falafel, a yawning face, an otter, a sloth and a one-piece bathing suit. Expect to see the latest additions added to your phone’s keyboard throughout the year.
