Google is tweaking 992 of its emoji designs to make them extra “universal, accessible, and authentic,” the company announced today. The new designs will arrive this fall alongside Android 12, however Google says they’ll even be obtainable on older variations with apps that use its Appcompat compatibility layer. They’re additionally coming to different Google platforms like Gmail, Chrome OS, Google Chat, and YouTube Live Chat this month.

None of the adjustments are notably drastic. Instead, they’re principally the sorts of tweaks that make the which means of every emoji simpler to know at a look by a wider vary of individuals. The pie emoji, for instance, at the moment seems like a traditional American pumpkin pie. That’s tremendous for Americans, nevertheless it signifies that, within the UK, the design appeared nearer to a tart than a conventional pie. The new extra common design ought to repair this.

In different circumstances, Google has given its designs a bolder, extra exaggerated look, which is useful contemplating how small they seem on most screens. The croissant and bacon emoji will now have extra of a shine to them, whereas the scissors have a extra exaggerated sharp edge. Vehicles like vehicles and taxis have additionally had their proportions adjusted to make them extra eye-catching.

Finally, the bikini emoji not seems prefer it’s being worn by an invisible particular person, and the face masks emoji now reveals a face with its eyes open. Google says it made this modification to mirror the truth that masks have turn into “a universal way of showing kindness to others” moderately than an emblem of somebody being sick.

It’s commonplace for corporations to revamp their emoji like this, both to right inaccuracies or mirror altering cultural assumptions about how they’re used. Last 12 months, Apple made an analogous tweak to its personal masks emoji to point out a smiling face beneath the masks, and it has additionally modified its syringe emoji to make it extra acceptable as an emblem for vaccines. In 2019, it even up to date its abacus emoji after individuals identified issues with its previous design. And let’s not neglect Google’s redesigns of its burger and beer emoji in response to an outcry in 2017.

If you’re questioning why we’ve seen such a flurry of emoji information over the previous couple of days, it’s as a result of this 12 months’s World Emoji Day lands tomorrow, July seventeenth. Yesterday, we noticed the announcement of the finalists for this 12 months’s new batch of emoji, Facebook introduced new emoji with sound for its Messenger service, and even Microsoft obtained in on the motion with a brand new set of 3D emoji throughout Windows, Office, Microsoft Teams, and elsewhere.