Google is adding "gender-fluid" emojis to Android Q

Of over 3000 emojis, 53 new ones are set to be introduced. Google has recently announced that Android Q users will now be able to use “gender-fluid” emojis. The emojis, which appear to be neither male nor female are an attempt to give an emoji-dentity to people who don’t specifically identify with a gender.

Google designer Jennifer Daniel, said to Fast Company, “There’s no singular way of getting it right. 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. I personally don’t believe there is one visual design solution at all, but I do believe to avoid it is the wrong approach here. We can’t avoid race, gender, any other number of things in culture and class. You have to stare it in the face in order to understand it. That’s what we’re trying to do–to [find] the signifiers that make something feel either male or female, or both male and female.”

Specifically, the gender neutralisation method differentiates per character. Through the use of mid-length hair, attire, for example the use of an androgynous chain for the vampire rather than a bow-tie representing men or choker representing women. The merperson’s chest is covered by their arms in order to conceal its chest.