Apple's iOS 10 update will add new rainbow flag and women emoji
The next version of iOS will have the most diverse set of emoji yet.
Apple announced Monday that the upcoming iOS 10 update will include new female characters depicting professional women and women in sports. The update also redesigns several existing emoji and adds a rainbow flag character.
Among the new characters are female versions of the swimmer, runner, surfer, mountain biker, weight lifter, basketball player, construction worker and detective characters. The emoji, like other characters, will also be available in different skin tones.
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The update also adds new family characters, including a single mother and single father emoji.
Apple's update comes just weeks after Google announced it was bringing dozens of new emoji to a future version of Android. Google's update will add female versions of 33 existing characters as well as 11 new characters depicting professional women.
Apple has also submitted five additional professional emoji -- that can be men or women -- including an artist, an astronaut, a judge, a pilot and a firefighter.
The iOS 10 update will also include the rainbow flag emoji proposed last month. In addition the the new characters the update redesigns many of the existing emoji. Notably, the pistol emoji has been redesigned into a bright green squirt gun.
Apple was reportedly strongly opposed to including new characters that depicted rifles in Unicode's 9.0 update. Apple is a member of the Unicode Consortium, which approves new characters before they are officially released.
The new characters aren't the only emoji upgrades that will be released with iOS 10 later this year. The update also adds new emoji prediction to its keyboard and themed sticker packs for iMessage.
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Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
