New Apple iOS will feature a smiling mask-wearing emoji

Apple is reportedly changing their mask-wearing emoji to smile with its eyes.

The mask-wearing emoji used to represent being sick, what some might consider a neutral-to-sad feeling.

In 2020, this emoji is now one of the most popular icons used in tweets about the coronavirus, according to Emojipedia, and represents the normalcy of wearing a mask regardless of symptoms and current health status.

In the next release of Apple’s iOS, this emoji will be getting a mood change, so to speak.

It’s downturned eyes will be replaced with rounded eyes, eyebrows and blushing cheeks – the exact same features of the smiling face emoji, reports Emojipedia.

Just because Apple changes the way their mask-wearing emoji appears does not mean it will change across every operating system and platform. It will be up to those companies to make changes if they wish.

Vendor designs / Emojipedia composites.

There are other emoji updates coming in Apple’s iOS14 update, including male and female characters bottle feeding a baby, roller skates, various insects and animals, and icons meant to represent more inclusivity around gender identification.