Falafels on your iPhone: Apple previews 59 new emoji

Dubai - More diverse and disability-themed emoji to be released, plus additional personalisation

Apple on Wednesday rolled out a preview of new emoji soon, bringing even more diversity to the keyboard and interaction - plus in time to mark World Emoji Day today.
Fifty-nine new emojis are set to debut, which will feature additions to popular categories of food, animals, activities and smiley faces. Though Apple did not explicitly mention that they will be included in iOS 13, the company says they will be available this fall with a free software update for the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.
iOS 13's general availability is expected sometime after Apple introduces its new iPhones in September.
In a major update to the holding hands emoji typically used to represent couples and relationships, users will now be able to select any combination of skin tone, in addition to gender, to personalise the people holding hands, opening up more than 75 possible combinations.
Following Apple's proposal to the Unicode Consortium last year to introduce more disability-themed emoji, a new guide dog, an ear with a hearing aid, wheelchairs, a prosthetic arm and a prosthetic leg will be available in the emoji keyboard.
"Celebrating diversity in all its many forms is integral to Apple's values and these new options help fill a significant gap in the emoji keyboard," Apple said on a release on its newsroom.
"Many additional emoji categories are getting exciting updates with a new smiley face for yawning, a one-piece swimsuit, new food items including a waffle, falafel, butter and garlic, and new animals like the sloth, flamingo, orangutan and skunk."
Thousands of emoji are currently available on the Apple ecosystem. New emoji are created based on the approved characters in Unicode 12.0.
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com