Emojis are an essential part of modern communication, with one in five social media messages containing one. However, the current selection of emojis does not adequately represent the biodiversity of our planet, according to conservation biologists.
Researchers argue that the current emoji list is heavily skewed towards certain species and fails to represent the full spectrum of the natural world. They advocate for an expansion of the emoji collection to include a wider range of organisms, such as insects, crustaceans, and arachnids.
Falaschi, one of the researchers, points out the need for emojis depicting lesser-known organisms and acknowledges that this process requires approval from the Unicode Committee.
While some argue that the current range of emoji is already extensive, the researchers emphasize the importance of more accurately reflecting the diversity of nature, similar to the way different skin tones were introduced to emoji in 2015 by Apple.
However, not everyone agrees with the need for more diverse emoji. According to Alexander Robertson, an emoji researcher at Google, the current pace of new emoji approvals has slowed down due to an overwhelming number of options and little demand for more bug emoji.
