The designs launched Tuesday on Pixel smartphones as a beta release. They'll come to Android Q, the next version of Google's mobile operating system, later in the year.
In the interview with Fast Company, designer Jennifer Daniel said gender is complicated: "It is an impossible task to communicate gender in a single image. It's a construct. It lives dynamically on a spectrum."
In images of the emoji sent from Google, captions note that some emoji, like the judge, only needed a new hairstyle. Others needed more work on clothing, like the vampire. The nonbinary vampire wears a chain instead of a bowtie or necklace.
"All of [the emoji] will force us to look each other in the eye and thin deeply about gender," one caption reads.
Reader Comments