At last, some racially-diverse emojis

Draft of "Unicode Version 8.0" / Courtesy of The Unicode Consortium

It looks like emojis ― those tiny icons used to express emotion on messaging apps ― may finally become more racially diverse.

The Unicode Consortium, which sets the standard for character coding around the world, released a draft of its “Unicode Version 8.0” on Tuesday.

The new version, available next year, proposes to add a range of five skin tone options to emojis, based on the Fitzpatrick scale, a recognized standard for dermatology.

The options will range from pinkish white to light brown to dark brown.

The update reflects the group’s intent of representing “more human diversity, especially for skin tone,” according to the group’s webpage.

The original human emoji ― developed by Japanese mobile tech firm Shigetaka Kurita – was yellow, for those keeping score.