Ginger emojis are finally coming to iPhones and iPads

Red-haired Scots will finally be able to express themselves in emoji form, when a range of new ginger cartoon faces comes to Apple iPhones and iPads later this year.
The new face emojis coming to Apple this year (Image: Apple)The new face emojis coming to Apple this year (Image: Apple)
The new face emojis coming to Apple this year (Image: Apple)

To mark World Emoji Day today (17 July), the tech giant has previewed some of its 70 new emojis, which will arrive in an update to iOS in the coming months.

"As always, some of the most vocal requests for new emojis are about representation, and this update delivers some of the most common requests. In particular the redheads and curly haired options are likely to be popular," said Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia and creator of World Emoji Day.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, while red-headed emojis will be on Apple devices for the first time, there won't be the full range of options, such as bride or runner.

The new face emojis coming to Apple this year (Image: Apple)The new face emojis coming to Apple this year (Image: Apple)
The new face emojis coming to Apple this year (Image: Apple)

"I do think some users will be in for a shock if they're expecting every emoji to have a red-headed option," said Burge.

Kangaroos and cupcakes

As well as red-haired options, the new additions include animals like a kangaroo, parrot, lobster and peacock, food items like a cupcake, a mango and a bunch of lettuce, and there will also be a freezing-cold face, which could also be useful in Scotland.

The new emojis were first announced earlier this year by the Unicode Consortium, the organisation that manages the world's emoji standards.

Apple has previewed some of the new emojis (Image: Apple)Apple has previewed some of the new emojis (Image: Apple)
Apple has previewed some of the new emojis (Image: Apple)
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At the time, Emma Kelly, who helped raise a petition for the change, said the introduction of ginger emojis to messaging apps was great news.

Ms Kelly, who runs the website Ginger Parrot, told the BBC: "We did feel a bit left out, so the ginger community is quite vocal about how pleased they are that it’s finally going to be included.

"I think probably every message I send from now on will have a ginger emoji in it, I almost felt like I didn’t want to use any emojis because there wasn’t one that looked like me."

Why is Scotland so ginger?

Scotland has one of the highest instances of red hair in the world, at around six per cent of the population.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Alistair Moffat, managing director of ScotlandsDNA, said that famous redheads such Karen Gillan and Gordon Strachan should no longer be looked upon as a '¨minority.

“There should be no more ginger jokes, because as much as half of Scotland might carry these variants,” he said. “It’s thought that around 650,000 people have red hair, but we think around 1.6 million '¨people may carry these variants. We’re still analysing data, but it’s statistically robust. As many as four times the number of people who have red hair could be carriers, which is a huge number.”

Related topics: