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Apple's new multicultural emoji are (almost) here

Apple's new multicultural emoji are (almost) here

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Plus, there's an Apple Watch emoji

By Lizzie Plaugic

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Earlier this month, Apple began seeding OS X 10.10.3 to developers and rolling out an iOS 8.3 beta with the promise of updated, multicultural emoji. But we didn't know what those new emoji would look like — until now.

It's been almost a year since Apple began pursuing diverse emoji

Today, Apple launched its second OS X 10.10.3 and iOS 8.3 beta updates, which feature a redesigned emoji keyboard and emoji skin tone modifiers, 9To5Mac reports. Any human icon can get a new skin tone if the user taps and holds the character. MacRumors notes the family emoji category now includes same-sex couples and couples without children. The available skin tones are based on five tones in the Fitzpatrick scale, a dermatology standard adopted by the Unicode Consortium.

It's not just the human emoji who have gotten a revamp — there are more than 300 new characters available. As The Next Web points out, the watch emoji is now (what else?) an Apple Watch.

It's been almost a year since Apple first announced its plans to diversify its emoji, and they're still only available to testers. The update is expected to become available to all users this spring.

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