With the iOS 17.4 update, Apple is following the recommendations of the Unicode Consortium. Deemed too unrepresentative of the immense plurality of families, the current emojis are replaced by neutral pictograms. This is a provisional plan, while waiting to be able to make them evolve again.
Little surprise in iOS 17.4, the iPhone update which will introduce new emojis and several changes linked to the European Digital Markets Act at the beginning of March: family emojis no longer exist as we know them today. The 26 current proposals, available in all ecosystems (Windows, Android, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), are replaced by 4 more neutral pictograms, which are no longer considered as characters, but as logos.
The decision may come as a surprise, given that emojis have continued to highlight inclusiveness for several years. But it nevertheless has a clear and more nuanced justification than one might think.
In reality, this decision is not Apple’s. In January 2023, the Unicode Consortium recommended that brands abandon the 26 emojis meant to represent families in favor of 4 pictograms, while they develop a universal system that can better represent genders, skin tones and family complexities.
What is a family?
Contrary to what some may have thought at first, the problem with the family emoji is not its excess of inclusiveness, but its lack of personalization.
For the Unicode Consortium, couples (or single parents) in previous versions have a major flaw: they cannot reflect society as a whole. Can a family really consist of a couple, regardless of gender, and one or two children? The Consortium reminds that grandparents can be part of a family, just like animals, while some families do not stop at two children… Another problem: if most emojis allow you to choose a color of skin, family emojis are yellow all the time. It must be said that with already 26 options today, the possibility of mixing many origins would risk bringing the number of possibilities to several thousand.
In early 2023, Jennifer Daniel of the Unicode Consortium wrote: “The Subcommittee Recommends a Visual Deprecation of the Family Emoji. » Apple is the first to follow this new rule, which should soon extend to the rest of the ecosystem.
In the future, families should return
Is this abandonment permanent? The Emoji Consortium doesn’t think so. “When there are as many families as there are people in the world, is there an effective way to convey the concept of “family” without being too prescriptive in defining what is or is not a family? ? » he asks himself.
Ultimately, smartphones could possibly accommodate a more customizable family generator, with the possibility of mixing several icons, to create your ideal family. But, as it stands, no keyboard offers this type of functionality. Waiting for, “icons can do a lot of work without requiring a lot of detail”concludes the Unicode Consortium.
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