Facebook rolls out new emojis for Messenger

Facebook is rolling out new emojis for its Messenger platform. And these new emojis are all about Girl Power. “We’re diversifying the genders to create a more balanced mix that’s more representative of our world,” Facebook wrote in a blog post. “Now, using Messenger emojis, you’ll see a female police officer, runner, pedestrian, surfer and swimmer for the very first time, and we’ll keep rolling these out.”

The emojis will be available on the Messenger service be across platforms -- web, iOS and Android.

Facebook Messenger will also allow users to set the skin color they prefer to their default emojis to be. As says the company in its blog post, "In an effort to make the emojis you send a better representation of our world, you will also be able to pick the skin color you prefer. All you have to do is set the color you want your default emojis to be when Messenger launches, and your emojis after that will follow your preference. Of course, you'll have the option to change this in settings or even make a one time decision. Also, at launch, we have emojis representing red heads for the first time."

With the update, users now have access to over 1,500 new emojis. The social networking giant is rolling out the update worldwide for every platform, including iOS and Android.

Search giant Google too recently announced new emojis to better represent professional women. In a proposal to the Unicode Consortium, which controls specifications for emojis, Google said that it wants to create a new set “with a goal of highlighting the diversity of women’s careers and empowering girls everywhere.”

The proposal also said that women and those under 30 in particular are the most frequent users of emojis.

Sample emojis provided by Google in the proposal show several female characters in professional clothing, including business suits, lab coats, medical scrubs and construction hats.