Big steps for Apple on emoji and diversity

Buried among the new features in the release of iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3 was a big change to Apple’s emoji library. Chief among these changes was the ability to select skin tones for appropriate emoji.

For example, here’s what you see when you tap the thumbs up emoji:

emoji

A secondary popup appears that lets you select a skin color. This works on both your iOS device and your Mac. Having the same emoji set be the same on all Apple devices is another step forward.

One final note: The emoji mechanism is still divided into pages, but now rather than make you tap on each page to try to find your emoji, the entire set is one solid, rapidly scrolling page. This is a big improvement.