More diverse emoji at the heart of Apple software update

In recent years, efforts have been made to diversify the icons in order to make them more representative of society; with more skin tones variations being introduced, as well as icons to represent different disabilities and broader gender and gender-neutral options being released. Photo: PA

A number of the emoji available to Apple users are being made available in more diverse options as part of a software update from the tech giant.

The latest developer beta of iOS 14.5 – an early version of software which will eventually be released to iPhone owners – has added skin tone variations to emoji featuring couples for the first time.