When emoji were popularized in Japan, the generic yellow smiley face that we’re all familiar with was intended to be a neutral skin color, like Legos, for example. But critics have since argued that Lego and smiley-faces do not reflect the diversity of those all around the world who use the tiny cartoons to communicate moods and feelings.
Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit that works to define international standards for computer code and text, has taken that to heart. The company has just released a draft of an emoji update that includes a range of five skin tones. Companies that manufacture devices, from phones to computers, generally base their emoji characters on the Unicode standard. 

The users who share the emojis may reflect their diversity, but the companies that manufacture the devices with which they are shared still have some work to do.