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iOS 13.1 finally fixes the squid, mosquito, and abacus emoji

iOS 13.1 finally fixes the squid, mosquito, and abacus emoji

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Apple also updated the octopus, puzzle piece, and more in iOS 13.1

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Today’s release of iOS 13.1 doesn’t just have bug fixes and some features that missed iOS 13.0 — it also brings updates to the designs of 24 emoji, according to Emojipedia, including changes to make a few of the animals anatomically accurate.

The most significant change is probably the squid emoji. Last December, the Monterey Bay Aquarium eloquently noted that Apple’s squid emoji has a “siphon” on the front — but apparently, the siphon is actually supposed to appear on the back of the squid:

A squid’s siphon helps it move, breathe, and discharge waste, so having the siphon in back makes more sense than having it in front. Now, the poor squid emoji will look like it should, without a siphon on its front:

Image: Emojipedia
Image: Emojipedia

Another important change? The mosquito, which apparently only had five legs, gains a sixth. I hate mosquitos as much as the next person, but no mosquito deserves to be missing a leg.

Image: Emojipedia

And, also importantly, the abacus is now historically accurate — previously, it was drawn in a way that apparently wasn’t accurate to any abacus ever used, as diligently reported by my colleague Chaim Gartenberg:

Image: Emojipedia

Other changes are smaller, such as the octopus now having suckers on its front two tentacles, the jigsaw piece changing colors from blue to green, and a new look for the hearts in the emoji with hearts for eyes.

iOS 13.1 does not include the 230 new emoji coming as part of Emoji 12.0 — Apple previewed its designs for those emoji in July, but they haven’t made their way to Apple devices yet. Apple says to expect them “this fall.” (Full disclosure: I submitted the proposals to the Unicode Consortium to recommend making the yawning face and waffle emoji that are coming in Emoji 12.0, but I was not involved in their implementation or final designs for any platform.)