Expanding their series of inclusive emojis and pictograms focused around diversity, Apple and Google continue to suggest new ideas to the Unicode Consortium to add more diverse skin tones to emojis. The latest in line to have more skin tones introduced soon is the handshake emoji.

The Emoji 14.0 update from Unicode Consortium will include an array of new handshake characters which will be fully customizable to users, allowing them to mix and combine the skin tones of both left and right hands for a total of 25 various combinations. The process of developing this emoji has taken over two full years to complete and launch due to the limitations in the modifier coding.

However, the emoji platform has now adopted a new approach, allowing the capability to support mixed skin tones on one icon. The company has been working on handshake’s functionality since the release of its Emoji 12.0 update.

The Emoji 14.0 update, which will bring these new handshake emojis, is coming to 2022, after being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also a bit late from the initial proposal by Google’s creative director for emojis, who suggested the multi-skin tone handshake back in 2019.