The Emojis On Facebook Messenger Are About To Get A Lot More Diverse

Facebook is upping its emoji game for Messenger — including rolling out 1,500 newly designed emojis and keeping in mind diversity in the process.

On the diversity front, you’ll be able to pick what skin color you prefer (you set the default when Messenger launches, and then all emojis from then on out will go by what you opted), and there will also be gender diversity for emojis like the police officer, runner, surfer, and swimmer. There will also be emojis representing people with red hair!

Facebook also announced that the new emojis will be standardized across devices, so there won’t be that weird box in place of an emoji if your friend messages your iPhone from their Android (or vice versa).

Facebook announced the changes today (June 1), and gave this reasoning for the new options:

Emojis have changed the way we talk to each other – whether it’s a smiley face to show you’re happy, a thumbs up, or a pizza when hungry, emojis are a fun, easy way to express yourself when words just aren’t enough — and people love them! In fact, nearly 10% of mobile sends in Messenger include emojis. However, not all platforms have kept up with emoji standards as they’ve evolved – which means sometimes the emoji you wanted to send wasn’t the one that showed up. Nor are they living up to the gender and skin tone diversity that we see in our world everyday.

The new emojis will roll out globally starting tomorrow (June 2).

Source: Teen Vogue, Amanda Chan
Photo: Teen Vogue