Google is releasing 53 new gender neutral emojis

By Jason England
published

Google is working on a new set of gender fluid emoji that consists of 53 non-binary characters. The new emoji are neither male or female, instead opting for a third gender neutral option for those who identify as neither. The emoji are rolling out to Pixel phones this week, but will eventually come to all devices running Android Q.

Google designers spent a lot of time deciding what exactly a genderless emoji would look like, and the hair seemed to be the most important factor. In order to bridge the gap between male and female, it went with a hairstyle which parts the hair to the side with longer hair in the back.

There are also other small changes for certain characters. For example, the vampire character distinguishes itself with a chain instead of the bow tie found on the male version while the merperson adorns an orange color and crosses their arms to cover their chest instead of having a seashell bra like the female version.

Google collaborates with others on emoji standards, and Jennifer Daniel is not only the director of Android emojis, but she also sits on the Unicode consortium that sets emoji standards. This makes it more likely we'll see Apple and others join up and release its own version of genderless emoji at some point down the road.

In other words, while the new emoji won't be very accessible to everyone right now, Google has gotten the ball rolling for others to follow suit. Once the new emoji have been released, if you send one to a device or app that is unsupported, it will be converted to a male or female gender until other companies release gender fluid emojis as well.

When it comes to emojis, no matter how inclusive Google's own set might be, it takes everyone getting on the same page before they can be 100% available for everyone.

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Jason England
Jason England
15 Comments
  • "instead opting for a third gender neutral option for those who identify as neither. " What does that even mean? Did these people create a new gender themselves? I would classify that as the "mentally ill gender". Get help please if you think like this.
  • This is the exact thinking that led to things like "conversion therapy" for homosexuals and cost the world Alan Turing... Is it really that offensive that people who you would prefer to call themselves she or he dress androgynously and prefer to be called they?
  • Turing's loss is contested, so.... But I do agree in live and let live. Which means people can call themselves whatever they want, but I don't have to.
  • ''Is it really that offensive that people who you would prefer to call themselves she or he dress androgynously and prefer to be called they?'' Yes, it is offensive to ask me to take part in someone else's delusion and to pretend that I am somehow unable to understand genetic differences. This is the definition of feeding into someone's delusions rather than being a responsible human being and attempting to help them overcome their illness. If 'they' asked you to call them "Supreme Leader of the Inter-Galactic Provinces", would you feel it's just as harmless?
  • Wow! 53 non-binary characters! That sounds like a lot, especially given that there are only two genders and every mammal on Earth is either male or female. What. A. Bunch. Of. Horse. Crap.
  • Actually, most mammals are generally non-binary when it comes to gender. You see, what you've done is confuse biological sex, the quality of being male or female, with the concept of gender, the idea of feminity Vs masculinity. Just as there are people who are born with male genitals but have a strong tendency toward being female in terms of gender and people born with female genitals who have a strong leaning toward being male in gender, it makes perfect sense that there are a small minority who feel a strong pull towards neither. Cats and dogs however don't really exhibit any psycho-sexual characteristics for the vast majority or the time.
  • No, what you have done is changed the definition of gender away from denoting male or female sex into a term to conceptualize everything in between. As all the lgbqrs have done. Those people with male genitals are males in sex and gender no later what they want to be considered as. In short sex and gender were the same until the lgbqrs decided to rape the word gender (couldn't make a claim against the word sex) instead of using terms like mental illness identity female (men who want to be female) or ID male(women who Want to be males) or similar to describe all conditions. You are born with your equipment, now if your mind is playing tricks on you that's sucks. I havent spoken to any cats and dogs about their preferences but one thing is for sure... They (and you if you have pets or live by an alley ) know who the female is when they are in heat and its time for mating..male cat is a Male cat, female cat is a female cat... They don't wear pink and blue so please don't define some new psycho-sexual characteristics terms for them and force them to be something else.
  • And when it's not time to mate? They still have male and farmable genitals but do they care? Or are they all just cats? I know it's scary, but the world changes, as do the meanings of words. If you really think about it, does the word "phone" mean the same thing it did 30 years ago? Why aren't you kicking and screaming about that?
  • Glad to know my ad revenue is being put to good work here.
  • They still look like dudes.
  • Lol, now that you mention it, if you ignore the characters to either side, they do look like guys. The exception would be the "Mer-person" who looks like a cute tomboyish girl who lost her top. I did see a large food court poster that had a man with a child who was ambiguous, and you really could not tell if the ten year old child was male or female. I kept glancing at the poster while eating a taco (a food-type taco!), and it was actually a bit odd (the poster, not that the child was non-specific).
  • I was going to say they all look like girls.
  • Maybe just remove gender and race altogether and return to genetic blobs... People will find a way to survive if they need more specifics. For example, we all know that if someone messages 🍆 🌮 ⌚ it means vegetarian Mexican food for lunch!
  • Nice way to roll out some dirty emojis Fuzzy! I had someone send me something similar, and unfortunately it was my friend's mother, and I didn't know if it was an accusation about me and her daughter, or an invitation from her!
  • It's Pat from the old SNL days