Apple Introduces Multicultural Emoji Characters After Previous Twitter Outrage From Miley Cyrus

A year after Miley Cyrus accused the lack of ethnic diversity in Apple's emoji characters, the Cupertino-based company announced they are 'working on it'. Although fans and actor Tahj Mowry joined her efforts, critics at the time argued that the topic is bursting with sensitivity run amok and is not supported by logic. Nevertheless, Apple took the Twitter debate very seriously and announced they are working very closely with the Unicode Consortium to update the standard.

The last emoji update took place in 2012

Originating from Japan, emojis are basically the pictograms we use on various instant chat messaging services today. Users in the Western world didn't only adopt them because of their cuteness, but also because they were extremely easy to remember and use during a conversation. Because we're a visually oriented culture, it doesn't come as a surprise that almost everyone who owns an iOS device quickly adopts them. They spread like wildfire and now you can find them everywhere.

While widely accepted, Apple's emojis have received their last update in 2012 with the launch of the iOS 6. Among the numerous emojis added, Apple also introduced two new pictograms depicting gay and lesbian couples for the first time. Even though the same sex couples were depicted holding hands, some argued that they didn't have any facial expressions. However, this seemed like a minor issue for Miley Cyrus who didn't seem to notice this interesting fact. Instead, she went for the sensitivity factor and immediately demanded the introduction of multicultural pictograms.

The multicultural emojis will probably come with iOS 8

Considering that the iOS 7 released in late 2013 didn't include any new pictograms, whereas Apple announced they are working to create and add new emojis, chances are that the multicultural emotes will become available with the iOS 8, scheduled to be released later on this year. Some sources announce that a few generic representations – Indian, Russian, Chinese – are in the making. Chances are we will be seeing numerous other ethnic emojis on iOS.