Of course, Apple users will need to update their phones to the new operating system in order to see the flag, which otherwise will simply appear as a blank white flag next to a separate trans symbol. But in September, the organization appeared to have caught up, announcing the rollout of hundreds of new images. Some observers had feared the pandemic would slow the release of new images, and the Unicode Consortium said earlier this year that new releases would have to wait until 2022.
In 2015, Unicode released new options that included a same-sex couple, while gender-neutral couples first started appearing a year ago. More inclusive emoji have been slow to appear over the last decade. “I hope the work I'm doing…is helping us to be able to see that we're all more similar than we are different.” 'We separate people into different 'kinds' of people, but the kind thing to do is to see everyone as our kin,” he said at the time. Unicode designer Paul Hunt told Mashable earlier this year that the organization was aware that users are alienated by emoji that don’t allow them to fully express themselves.
