Coming swiftly after last week's iOS 13.0 release, Apple has today released iOS 13.1. While this update does not feature any new emojis or expand upon iOS 13.0's Memoji stickers, iOS 13.1 does feature an 'accuracy update' to a number of existing emojis.
Above: a selection of emojis with new designs in iOS 13.1.
Support for new 2019 emojis were previewed on World Emoji Day and announced given the announced "Fall 2019" release date, these will most likely appear in a future release such as iOS 13.2 or iOS 13.3.
A total of 24 emoji designs have been changed in iOS 13.1, amongst which there are gestures towards greater anatomical and historical accuracy.
🆙 Changed
The eyes of 😍 Smiling Face With Heart-Eyes now use the ❤️ Red Heart emoji design instead of a distinct heart design.[1]
🐙 Octopus now has suckers on the underside of its front two arms.[2]
🦑 Squid no longer (inaccurately) displays a siphon in the center of its face.
🦟 Mosquito now features a sixth leg, making the insect anatomically-correct.[3]
🧩 Jigsaw piece has been changed from blue to green.[4]
🧮 Abacus now has beads orientated vertically instead of horizontally for a more historically-accurate representation.
📶 Release
iOS 13.1 is out now for iPhone, and the same emoji updates are available as part of iPad OS 13.1 and coming soon to macOS 10.15 Catalina.
A similar change has also been made to 😘 Face Blowing a Kiss and 😻 Smiling Cat Face With Heart-Eyes. ↩︎
The addition of more anatomically-correct features echoes an earlier design change which appeared briefly in a beta of 2017's iOS 11.1. This update rendered a more accurate creature, but was reverted to the cuter cartoon-style Octopus prior to a public release. ↩︎
This is a change that was the subject of a campaign for some time by Mosquito-based Twitter account Ada Eez The Mosquito from the San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District. ↩︎
Potentially to avoid unintended association with organizations such as Autism Speaks which uses a blue puzzle piece as a logo. ↩︎