Diversity
A much more diverse group of emojis includes a wider range of skin tones and different types of family and relationship groupings.
Not all groups feel they have been included though. A campaign by redheads on change.org and elsewhere is calling for Apple to fix the lack of a redhead emoji as quickly as possible.
There has also been some debate about the updated prayer emoji which has lost its 'heavenly aura' in the latest update.
Other additions to the new release include a much wider choice of national flags.
Election emoticons
As the UK runs up to a general election, it seems the major challenge to the use of electioneering emoticons is that no-one can agree which emoticon to use for which politician. The choices range from a crying cat to a moon.
This won’t be a problem in the run-up to the US presidential election if CNN has its way. The news channel has helpfully created its own emoticons for all the candidates currently in the race.
The Guardian’s datablog undertook some research to analyse which emoticons were being tweeted at which UK politician. However, simply counting the most popular emoticons tweeted cannot reflect the complex ways in which people are using them (ironic use/critical retweets).
In a bid to beat voting apathy a local authority in England has created a webpage to explain the election in emojis. They’ve also created this great little YouTube video.
Sources: The Telegraph; Mashable; Change.org; BBC NewsBeat; Standard; CNN; The Guardian; Preston.gov.uk.