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Emojis may expand skin colour options

A proposal to expand the skin colour options for emojis may get the thumbs up from those calling for more diversity in the icons. Screenshot/Apple

A proposal to expand the skin colour options for emojis may get the thumbs up from those calling for more diversity in the icons.

Emojis are cartoon-like pictograms — such as smiley faces or hearts — that have become popular in texts and online chats to express emotion.

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Unicode Consortium, the non-profit organization that sets the standards for these pictograms, said in a proposal that is considering adding five new skin colours. The default emoji face was designed to be generic, but Unicode says users been clamouring for changes to better reflect global diversity.

The proposal is still under review but could lead to changes for many users as many operating systems are based on Unicode standards.

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