For those of you who own an Android phone and also happen to prolifically use emoji in your conversations, you may be happy to hear that Google is redesigning 992 of its emoji designs to make them more “universal, accessible, and authentic", the company announced in a blog post.

What's new with Google's emoji designs?

Although Google has gone ahead and changed hundreds of emoji, none of them are too different or mind-blowing.

The pie emoji, for example, went from a typical slice of American pumpkin pie (which is fine for Americans but possibly tart-like in appearance for Brits) to a more universal symbol of a full pie (which everyone should immediately recognise). In other cases, however, emoji have just been slightly tweaked. For instance, the scissors now have a sharper edge, and cars and taxis now have updated proportions. The face mask emoji, meanwhile, now shows a face with its eyes open, to avoid the perception of a mask-wearer being sick.

As you can see, these are all subtle changes.

When will Google's new emoji be available?

The new designs will arrive this autumn alongside Android 12, but they're also coming to Google's apps - like Gmail, Chrome OS, Google Chat, and YouTube Live Chat - in July 2021. Google said its updated emoji will be available on older versions of Android with apps that use its Appcompat compatibility layer.