On Wednesday, the social media network announced 1,500 new emojis that are rolling out worldwide today.
“From skin tones that you can choose to lots of women in great roles, Messenger is beginning to make emojis more representative of the world we live in,” Facebook said in a post introducing the new icons:
Facebook said that almost 10 percent of Facebook messages sent on mobile devices contain emojis, but its offerings didn’t live up “to the gender and skin tone diversity that we see in our world every day.”
Users can select their skin tone in Facebook messenger, so that emojis will follow the set preference. Though users can change this option as much as they like, users can also set their skin tone preferences once and not worry about it again.
The new emojis also offer Facebook users “gender-agnostic options” and feature several female emojis. “Now, using Messenger emojis, you'll see a female police officer, runner, pedestrian, surfer and swimmer for the very first time, and we'll keep rolling these out,” Facebook said.
Along with more female emojis and a larger array of skin tone options, Facebook is offering redhead emojis for the first time.
The new emojis are supported on all platforms, so users who send visual messages to friends using a different mobile device can be sure their friends see exactly what they send.
WEBCAST: Learn social media "next practices" from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The Verge explained:
Facebook is also making another key change to the way it handles emoji: no matter what platform you're viewing Messenger on, you'll now see the emoji made by Facebook. Until now, Facebook was inconsistent about which emoji would show up; so some people might see Facebook's emoji, and other people might see the emoji native to whatever phone they're using. Though emoji are supposed to be consistent across platforms, in practice there are slight variations that can lead to some real misunderstandings in meaning. With this change, Facebook is trying to clear up those misunderstandings.
Although some might think Facebook’s move is nothing more than a PR stunt, an effort toward greater inclusivity is increasingly welcome to social media users who use visuals and symbols to communicate.
The Huffington Post’s viral news editor, Hillary Hanson, wrote that diversity in emojis is becoming more important, especially as people turn to online platforms to “tell their own stories.”
Hanson continued:
Some people (helloooo, comments section) will dismiss something like new emoji as trivial and meaningless. And is lack of emoji diversity the biggest problem facing women and people of color? Of course not, and no one is claiming it is.
But representation in media—including social media—does matter. When kids see men in a variety of professional roles, but women only appear as princesses and brides, that shapes their idea of what women can be. When people see a white male as the default “normal,” that makes it seem like everyone else is an “other.”
On Facebook and Twitter, people are responding positively to the new offerings.
from PR Daily News Feed http://ift.tt/1UwNcg6
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