Why the Handshake Emoji Doesn’t Support Different Skin Tones
By Penny King -
Emojis were originally invented to allow people to say more in a character-limited message format. Since then, the emoji culture took off and continued expanding throughout the years. Emojis help to add a tone to the messages, ensuring better understanding. Several emojis received a skin tone modifier in 2015, but many, including the handshake, still don’t support it.
Why the Handshake Emoji Doesn’t Support Different Skin Tones
First Skin Tone Modifiers
The Unicode consortium introduced the skin tone modifier in 2015. Although it started with just a handful of emojis, the movement continued and spread to many more emojis ever since, including a number of hand gestures. Redditors have wondered and discussed for a long time why the handshake wasn’t one of them. Jeremy Burge, an emoji historian and founder of Emojipedia, set out to find out why some emojis remain excluded from the modifier.
Why the Handshake Emoji Doesn’t Support Different Skin Tones
Some Emoji Types Don’t Have Multiple Skin Tones
As it turns out, it’s not only the handshake that doesn’t feature multiple skin tones. The same goes for nearly any emoji featuring more than one person. These are family emojis, couples, wrestlers, people with bunny ears, and other multi-person groupings. The reason behind this is technical. New code points are needed for each hand or featured person to support mixed skin tones. This means that the coding would take a long time, a lot of work, and would have to support thousands of variations.
Why the Handshake Emoji Doesn’t Support Different Skin Tones
What the Future Holds for Emojis
There are plans for future releases to expand mixed skin tones to many two-person emojis and the handshake emoji. Users can likely expect these new emojis to be available in 2021 or 2022. However, Unicode has expressed the preference to leave the family emoji and all its variants as they are. This is because over 7000 variations would be needed to encompass the skin tones for each of the family members. Such an expansion seems difficult to implement and impractical to many vendors.
Meta Unveils Oculus Quest 2 Full of Unique VR Experiences
By Mike Vega –
Meta has come up with Oculus Quest 2, an all-in-one VR headset, filled with over 250 unique experiences. With a range of in-built apps and immersive games, Oculus Quest 2 has opened up new possibilities of discovery in the world of augmented reality. Let’s check out the fascinating hi-tech gadget here.
Playing Like Never Before
Oculus Quest 2 includes a range of immersive games, giving the opportunity to explore the virtual world with unparalleled freedom. You can play all your favorites with your favorites, as the gadget allows you to team up with friends easily, anywhere and anytime. Or you can go solo and be an alien, a dance pro, a soldier, or heavyweight champ in hundreds of sports, rhythm, adventure, and action games, specially made only for VR.
Making Fitness Fun
Working out is not hard work with Oculus Quest 2. With a number of fitness apps and games already in existence, this VR gadget goes the extra mile of allowing the user to have workout routines with unique experiences. Along with getting inspired from certified coaches and a wide community of supporters, you can choose between doing lunges on a glacier, push-ups at the Machu Picchu ruins, burning calories during a zombie hunt, and more. From boxing to meditation, every level of workout is covered here.
Grabbing the Best Seat
Oculus Quest 2 comes up with unique work and entertainment experiences, with more than 20 virtual environments. You can easily arrange a presentation meet or work with your colleagues on a collaborative project from the comfort of your home. For your fair share of entertainment, the VR gadget allows you to binge your favorite shows in your private theatre, to hang out or to go for a movie night with your friends even from miles apart, to catch front-row views of live concerts, and even to attend exclusive worldwide events. Truly, the possibilities are endless here!
