The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly New Emojis

Good news, emoji-obsessed iPhone users: you now have a lot more options — to be exact, 300 new options. Apple’s newest iPhone emojis came out on Wednesday with the release of the newest operating system, iOS 8.3. While the update also fixed bugs to the Messages app, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, most of the hype has been about the emojis. (Because, let's face it, how interesting is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth by comparison?)

Admittedly, the addition of 300 more emojis to choose from is pretty great. However, the update isn’t perfect. So, here’s a rundown of what’s good — and what’s bad — about the latest members of Apple’s emoji family.

Let's start with the good news first:

1. Racial Diversity

The biggest perk of the new emojis is, hands down, the addition of racial diversity. Apple pledged to make this change last year, after some users protested about the fact that most of the emoji were white, TIME reports. All of your favorite emojis are still there, but now there’s a bit more diversity in the emoji’s skin color. The update extends across faces to hands and other body parts to the sports emojis. Moreover, the emoji default color is no longer white, but yellow.

2. Family variety

The newest emojis also offer some more diversity in terms of family makeup, and romantic relationships. While the previous emoji did offer same-sex couples, the new set now offers same-sex families and increased options for same-sex couples, such as the couple with a heart between them.

3. More flags and tech

Apple added flags from 32 more countries. Emoji tech just got an update as well. And you can now send emoji of an Apple watch (because of course you can).

The bad:

1. No interracial couples

Since one of Apple’s main goals of the emoji overhaul seemed to be the addition of diversity, the fact that interracial couples are missing from the mix is surprising.

2. A lack of compatibility with old iOS systems

A lot of users got a big surprise Wednesday when they tried to share emojis with users that had not yet updated their operating systems. If you try to send a new racially diverse emoji to a friend without the updates, the old standard emoji will show up alongside a picture of an alien instead. Other possibilities include the standard face showing up alongside a swatch of the intended skin color, or just a white square.

3. Still no taco

While there are certainly a lot of food emojis to choose from, a lot of users are disappointed that Apple didn’t throw a taco into its slew of new emoji. Because who doesn’t need to send a taco emoji?

Images: Emoji