Facebook Messenger adds more diverse selection of emoji

The Facebook Messenger app now has over 1,000 new emoji that the company says are supposed to offer "a more balanced mix that's more representative of our world."

Facebook Messenger

Facebook says:

Messenger is bringing over 1,500 newly designed Messenger emojis to the world. The new designs, gender-agnostic options and multi-colored emojis will be available on many Android devices and web products for the first time. We're diversifying the genders to create a more balanced mix that's more representative of our world. 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.

Messenger users will also be able to pick the skin color for emoji:

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.

Finally, Messenger is standardizing the emoji so that they look the same no matter which version you are using:

No matter what emoji you pick, it will now look the same for all Messenger users, regardless if the recipient is on Android, iOS or another platform. In other words, no more broken-looking black boxes or emojis that just don't make sense. Our characters are consistent every time you use them, no matter what platform the recipient is on.

Download Facebook Messenger from the Windows Store

QR: Messenger

John Callaham