Apple is rolling out gender-neutral Santa emoji with new iOS 14.2 update

A gender-neutral Santa Claus is coming to town with the iOS 14.2 beta release.

As part of its drive for greater digital diversity, Apple Inc has unveiled the new Santa emoji which will roll out with the iOS 14.2 update due in October this year. According to Emojipedia, the new update will include variations of people wearing tuxedo and veil. Earlier, Apple only portrayed a man wearing a tuxedo and a woman wore a veil. However, with the new update, tuxedo and bridal gown options will be available for both men and women.

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Santa update

The new update will also have an alternative for Santa Claus, dubbed Mx Claus or Mrs. Claus. Earlier, only one option was available that showed an old bearded man wearing a Santa cap. The new Santa will swap his beard for a clean-shaven, more androgynous look. The bottle-feeding options will also come with different variations in the new iOS 14.2. In prior releases only a woman feeding bottled milk to a baby was available, but now a male avatar will also be seen. 

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Apart from these, Apple will also release an emoji of people hugging, transcending the social distancing rules of the COVID-19 era. The neutral emoji can be used by anyone who, regardless of their colour or gender. As per Emojipedia, the latest set of emojis have been approved by Unicode Consortium, a non-profit organisation that maintains and publishes the Unicode standard. 

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