What you need to know
- Apple has added 217 emojis to iOS 14.
- One notable change is the elimination of blood from its syringe emoji to make it more 'vaccine friendly'.
Apple has removed the drops of blood depicted in its syringe emoji in a bid to make it more vaccine friendly in the latest iOS 14 beta.
As reported yesterday, Apple added 217 new emojis to the iOS 14.5:
As reported by Emojipedia, the latest iOS 14.5 beta has brought with it 217 new emojis for users to continue to expand their emoji game.New emojis have arrived on iOS as part of the latest iOS 14.5 beta. These include a heart on fire, exhaling face, and gender options for the people with beards. Also included in this update is a vaccine-friendly syringe emoji, and support for couples with a mix of skin tones
Turns out the "vaccine-friendly" syringe emoji no longer shows drops of blood next to a needle, as noted by CNN Business:
Eliminating the blood from the syringe emoji makes it more appropriate to represent Covid-19 vaccination, said Jeremy Burge, the chief emoji officer of Emojipedia, an online emoji dictionary. (He also said the change doesn't prevent the emoji from being used to represent donating blood.) The move to make the emoji less graphic comes amid the largest vaccine rollout in US history.
Burge told CNN that removing the blood makes the emoji "more versatile", whilst also quashing the misconception that vaccination involves blood. Whilst Burge said it was unclear if this would have any material impact was unclear, he said "it shouldn't hurt."
Apple also changed the headphone emoji to depict its own AirPods Max wireless headphones.
