Apple to launch LGBT-inclusive and racially diverse emojis

Apple have announced plans for a new series of emojis featuring same-sex couples and a range of different skin tones.

The corporation’s new emoji keyboard will include 300 new symbols, including characters with five optional skin tones and families depicting two mothers and two fathers.

Users will be able to change any human emoji in the ‘people’ set clicking, holding and selecting a skin tone, while other new emojis include a range of additional country flags, a symbol for the Apple Watch, and one to represent the iPhone 6.

Proposals to diversify emoji were announced late last year by the Unicode Consortium, an industry body charged with developing software standards, following criticism that there were only three emojis representing non-Caucasian characters.

The update to the emoji keyboard will be added to Apple’s new OS X 10.10.3 desktop operating system, which is currently in the hands of beta testers before being released to the public.

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