Since 2010, emojis have emerged as the solution to successfully conveying tones and messages via text. With 2018 came a new variety of emojis including the star eyes emoji and cowboy emoji, and texters anxiously waited for the emojis in the App Store for 2019.  With the increased awareness for the disabled community that came from this year’s new Barbie in a wheelchair, even emojis have become more inclusive. On February 5, 2019, Emoji came out with new disability emojis pertaining to those hard of hearing, blind, and handicapped.

“When Barbies started to be more inclusive, with dolls that have different body shapes than today’s ‘standards,’ and now even dolls with physical disabilities, it really inspired other companies and shows to bring on this awareness,” said Felicia Chen ‘20.

Companies like IMG and movies like “The Quiet Place” brought in actors and models that are deaf and physically disabled which sparked interest on social media. Now emojis will spread the awareness worldwide to anyone who has access to an iPhone.  “I think emojis are becoming even more diverse, especially when they came out with a more diverse population of races, sexes, and sexualities last year. There are emojis for everyone, which can definitely bring more awareness to this community,” said Chen ’20.

In addition to disability emojis, seventy new interracial couple emoji with different sexualities have also came out. In an age when singles from all different backgrounds meet on dating apps like Tinder and Bumble, it was only a matter of time before Emoji started to create icons to represent these couples.

“It’s really nice to see more representation for interracial couples and not just heterosexual interracial relationships, but for the LGBTQ community and so many different races. Seventy emojis just for interracial couples is so great and inclusive. With online dating culture growing, it was only time for emojis to start making these icons,” said Cathy Wang ‘19.

iPhone and Android users can expect to see these new, brightly colored emojis in mid-2019. With Emoji catering its icons to everyone, users are excited to see what they will come up with in future years.