It's fair to say that emojis have completely revolutionised the way we communicate by text, and pretty much everyone uses them nowadays. In fact, their current cultural influence has been so profound that the Oxford English Dictionary named '?' its Word of the Year back in 2015. Oxford Dictionaries President Caspar Grathwohl stated that:  "traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st Century communication. It's not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps—it's flexible, immediate, and infuses tone beautifully."

However, it's also fair to say that people like their emojis to be relatable and bear elements of their own personality. We've already written about how many people feel more than a little uncomfortable when they have to rely on emojis of a different race compared with their own, and there are now a variety of skin tones for emojis to accommodate any need. However, one group which has been sadly underrepresented in the emoji world are ginger people. Yes, redheads have been left totally emoji-deprived since their creation; something which has been particularly galling to certain users.

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However, if you're a disappointed ginger then despair no more, because as of today, ginger emojis are coming to phones, and what's more is that they're here to stay. What a brilliant gift for Halloween! The new characters have been launched as part of a  70-stong batch of brand-new emojis, which have been proudly unveiled by Apple to celebrate World Emoji Day. They're now available to all of Apple's iOS 12.1. users.

In a press statement, the corporation said: "More than 70 new emoji come to iPhone and iPad with iOS 12.1, including new characters with red hair, grey hair and curly hair, a new emoji for bald people, more emotive smiley faces and additional emoji representing animals, sports and food."

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In a recent interview with CNN, Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia and creator of World Emoji Day, commented on the new emojis and cautioned people not to be too disappointed that not every emoji has a ginger version at the moment. Burge stated: "As always, some of the most vocal requests for new emojis are about representation, and this update delivers some of the most common requests. In particular, the redheads and curly haired options are likely to be popular. I do think some users will be in for a shock if they're expecting every emoji to have a redheaded option."

He added: "I hope people will try using World Emoji Day as an excuse to lighten up their online communications. Honestly, there's nothing better than when someone who might have seemed a bit aloof via email sends an emoji and you can breathe out, knowing we're all just humans after all." Yes, I guess this proves once and for all that gingers deserve to be treated equally too.

Some things we'll be reaching for during the winter months:

That curling stone looks impressively realistic. Then there's a person who's just stepped out of the shower:

A perfectly folded dim sum:

This fabulous broccoli:

A mother breastfeeding:

A rock climber (note the attention to detail):

A woman with a headscarf:

A demonstration of lotus position:

Dinosaurs (yay!):

And also a big welcome to these fellas:

Then there are these mythical creatures, just in time for Halloween:

There's an inquisitve man with a monocle:

A new crazy face:

"Shhh", for when it's time to be petty:

And this cuss face, in retaliation:

Here are the gender-neutral characters, of all different ages:

Finally a takeout box:

These faces with frighteningly graphic details:

A bearded man:

A delicious, piping hot pie:

And a new hat to add to the collection:

A pregnant man and a pregnant person emoji will be appearing in a range of skin tones on mobile devices either sometime this year or next year.

Confirmation of its inclusion comes after a draft list by the Unicode Consortium, which included the progressive graphic, was released earlier this year.

When the Unicode Consortium proposed the new emoji - which provoked controversy in conservative circles - it noted in a statement:

"One's sex does not dictate the capacity to care for children in the home or work in the market.

"In the same way sex equality law has aimed combat harmful sex stereotypes, there are a great deal of parallels regarding how one's sex does not dictate the capacity to cary children. This is not a new phenomenon.

"Pregnancy has been indiscriminate of gender throughout history but it is only now being formally recognized."

Emojipedia, a voting member of the Unicode Consortium, said that the pregnant man emoji recognizes that "pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people".

In any case, the idea behind the emoji is that it won't exclusively be used to represent pregnancy. In fact, the Unicode Consortium believes it could be used to indicate that someone feels bloated after having eaten a heavy meal.

It said in its proposal: "This goes beyond gender … encoding people emoji with swollen bellies embraces how people repurpose emojis for entirely new uses. Finally, an emoji to denote that uncomfortable feeling after you ate too much at lunch."

What's more, this groundbreaking emoji isn't the only one that is set to appear on smartphones later this year or next year.

It is just one of 37 new emojis that will form part of the next release, known as version 14.0. As well as the pregnant man emoji, there will be a gender-neutral pregnant person.

Also included in the latest version are an interracial handshake, a melting face, a covering face with hands while peeping emoji, a saluting face, yet another tearful face, a hand covering mouth face, a seemingly provocative biting lip, a slide, a green troll, a spilled glass of water, a bird's nest containing eggs as well as an empty birds' nest and more.

Featured image credit: True Images / Alamy

- Junaid, 23, Asian British

- Ryan, 27, white British

- Sandra, 27, black British

- Jehoshaphat, 65, Black British

- Matthew, 28, white British

- Alicia, 20, white British

- Tola, 16, black British

- James, 36, white British

A pregnant man emoji is set to be introduced later this year.

Per The Guardian, the new emoji has been illustrated by Emojipedia in honor of World Emoji Day on July 17, along with several other highly-requested new variations.

A draft list published by the Unicode Consortium also revealed that a number of other emojis will be given a masculine, feminine, or gender-neutral option as part of a push towards inclusivity...

This update will also include options to represent transgender and non-binary people.

The draft list also includes new emojis such as handshakes between two different skin tones, hands making a heart-shape, and additional faces, such as "peeking eye", "holding back tears" and "salute."

Not only that, but the update will also include a further 20 new icons, including coral, a playground slide, a crutch, an X-ray, as well as an empty battery.

The Guardian reports that chief emoji officer at Emojipedia Jeremy Burge commented on the update by stating that it "will mean that nearly all emojis can have default a gender-neutral option, with [the] choice to use a woman or man where relevant."

These draft icons will first have to go through a comment process before they can be officially given final approval in September. The final decision on which emojis will be rolled out is to be left up to the discretion of individual device manufacturers.

The Guardian reports that the most recent emoji in a software update made in February tweaked the “syringe” emoji to remove the blood in celebration of the Covid vaccine.

The lack of options for male pregnancies in emojis was previously criticized by certain users, and a petition was launched on Change.org by a user going by the handle Koner So-Real aimed at enabling this feature.

This petition's description reads: "As we all know sexism is a big problem. I have found something very very disturbing. THERE ARE ONLY FEMALE PREGNANT EMOJIS. We must change this now.

"This is a very pressing issue that has gone unnoticed until now. Thank you. [sic]"

Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Jeffrey Blackler