Flipping off your friends is hilarious and witty, but what if you want to do it in emoji form?
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Luckily for all of us, someone at Microsoft asked the same question. Among a host of other new additions and changes, an image of the middle (rude) finger will be coming to Windows when the next iteration of the operating system arrives this year.
The Emojipedia Blog has trawled through the fonts on a preview build of Windows 10 – expected to be released in July – and has identified several innovations in the field of tiny pictograph people. These include style changes to the information desk person and to the face with flushed cheeks, in addition to the dreaded one-finger salute (which is a new emoji).
Windows also appears to be making strides in racial equality with its new emojis. Whereas the default skin colour for emojis in Windows 8 was creamy caucasian, Windows 10 takes on board the Unicode diversity suggestion that emojis default to a colour not associated with any specific race; in this case, grey. This also helps Windows stand apart from the Google and Apple emoji sets, which default to yellow.
Like Apple, Microsoft will allow their human-looking emojis to be customised beyond grey with any of several skin tones from pale pink to brown.
The iPhone maker was the first to announce that emojis on its platform would be diversifying to be more inclusive, although when it finally happened some complained that all they did was open a can of worms and bring race issues where there were no race issues before.
At least this time, if you don't like the changes Microsoft has made to its operating system, you'll have the perfect emoji to express that.
