Facebook announced today that it is adding over 1,500 new emoji to Facebook Messenger. The company made the announcement on the Messenger Facebook page, explaining that the new emoji bring a lot more diversity to the service.
The new emoji are largely similar to what was added in iOS last year. Facebook, however, says that Messenger is the first platform to include “a female police officer, runner, pedestrian, surfer, and swimmer,” while it also notes that many more new, diverse emoji are still set to come in the future.
Furthermore, Facebook says that it is making a change to how it handles the displaying of emoji. In the past, some users would see emoji that were native to the device they were using, while some would see Facebook’s own emoji. Now, however, everyone will see the Messenger emoji. Facebook says that this will ensure that no one will see “broken-looking black boxes or emojis that just don’t make sense.”
Finally, Messenger now includes a new emoji picker on all platforms. The picker is located at the left of the composer and is similar to the built-in emoji picker on iOS.
The latest version of Facebook Messenger is available now on the App Store. Download it to access the over 1,500 new, more diverse emoji.
