iOS 14.2 beta 2 is now available to developers, and the update includes a handful of new emoji characters for users. As first reported by Emojipedia, the new emoji options in iOS 14.2 beta 2 include bubble tea, a transgender flag, seal, feather, and more.
These emoji were approved earlier this year as part of the Emoji 13.0 release by the Unicode Consortium. Apple first previewed its custom designs for the emoji back in July, and today’s release of iOS 14.2 is the first time we’ve gotten a look at the final designs from Apple.
Emojipedia explains what’s new in this release:
In total, there are 117 new emoji coming to iPhone, iPad, and Mac users this year, with different skin tone options, new gender-inclusive options, and more.
Two emojis not seen from Apple until today include Smiling Face with Tear and Disguised Face.
This is also the first time Apple’s gender variations for people wearing a Tuxedo or Veil have been seen.
Prior releases assigned a man to wear the tuxedo and a woman to wear a veil, but these have been reclassified by Unicode as gender neutral emojis in Emoji 13.0, paving the way for consistent options for women or men to wear either, in addition to the default person design.
Each year, Apple saves new emoji options for a point update to that year’s major iOS release. For example, new emoji were included in the release of iOS 13.2 last year. Apple does this as a way to entice users to update their devices to the latest and most secure versions of iOS.
This year with iOS 14, it is even easier than usual to find the new emoji. One of the new features in iOS 14 is the ability to search the collection of emoji characters. This feature has been on the Mac for several years, but unfortunately, it has not made its way to the iPad just yet, even with this year’s release of iPadOS 14.
iOS 14.2 beta 2 is available to developers now, but a release for public beta testers is likely coming soon as well.
