Facebook Messenger Increases Emoji Diversity


Emojis and emoticons have played a key role in how we message each other through social media, so much so that a film about emojis will be released next year. And in an announcement which will have implications through the social media world, Facebook Messenger announced on Wednesday that it will be changing its emoji system to be “more representative of the world we live in.”

There are two parts to this emoji change. The first parts reflects Facebook’s efforts to be more inclusive in regards to race and gender. Messenger announced that they plan to bring over 1,500 newly designed emojis, which will be multi-colored and gender agnostic. Some of these new emojis include female police officers, swimmers, and runners. Messenger also stated that they would give viewers the options to change the skin color of their emojis.

It should be noted that there have been questions about the lack of emoji diversity. One New York Times feminist criticized the lack of female professional emojis, noting that the options seemed to be limited to things such as a princess, a flamenco dancer, and a bride. As she described it, “How was there space for both a bento box and a single fried coconut shrimp, and yet women were restricted to a smattering of tired, beauty-centric roles?”

In addition to creating more diverse emojis, Messenger announced that it would implement new technological changes to standardize emojis across smartphones. While all smartphones carry roughly similar sets of emojis, there are differences. This meant that if you used an iPhone to send an emoji to your friend with an Android, the friend might just see a box with a question mark if the Android did not recognize the emoji.

Messenger’s emojis will now work both on Android phones as well as iPhones (though not Windows phones), ensuring the end to said boxes and a greater ease of communication. Of course, it would also ensure that more people use Messenger instead of Android or Apple’s means of communication.

These changes reflect the growing importance of emojis in social media communication. Messenger noted that nearly 10 percent of sends through Messenger involve emojis. Furthermore, companies are finding new ways to have emojis advertise their business in new and interesting ways. Disney recently released a short video summarizing Finding Nemo with emojis, complete with an emoji Dory, and also did the same thing with the latest Star Wars movie in May.

https://www.facebook.com/GirlScoutsUSA/photos/a.10150331202525393.569715.237593025392/10157111123765393/?type=3&theater

Of course, sometimes attempts to use emojis can backfire. In the 2015 NBA playoffs, the Houston Rockets twitter account used emojis to point a gun at a horse as the Rockets eliminated the Dallas Mavericks. While some sports fans found it amusing, the Rockets ultimately fired the person in charge of their Twitter account due to the outcry.

But while Facebook may be making one move to update emojis, other social media platforms are also moving to create more diverse emojis. Google has discussed creating more professional female emojis, in addition to creating its own messaging app called Allo. Allo would be a combination between standard messaging as well as a voice assistant, as users would be able to ask Allo questions while chatting with their friends at the same time.

With a single image or funny face, emojis can sum up things faster and clearer than typing out some sentence, and it is always amusing to create combinations of images to tell a story. Given their growing popularity as well as the importance of messaging, it is clear that social media companies will continue to put out the most diverse and technologically advanced emojis and messaging systems that they can create.

[Photo By Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

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