The Australian mango industry has successfully lobbied the emoji authority Unicode to approve a new emoji.
The new mango emoji will be included in Unicode's next update in June, thanks to a social media campaign funded by Aussie mango growers through Hort Innovation during the 2016/7 season.
The campaign #mangoemojiplease was launched in September 2016 and saw more than 800 posts using the campaign hashtag, according to Hort Innovation.
Some 2,666 emojis are currently in use, and for new emojis to be approved, interested parties must apply in a letter to the Unicode Consortium, which is made up of a committee from tech giants including Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Google, Oracle, Adobe, Huawei and Netflix.
Other fruit emojis previously approved by Unicode include pears, pinapples and coconuts, and 157 new emojis including a kangaroo, redheads, pirate flags, moon cakes, and soap are being released in its latest update.
“It’s very exciting for Australian mangoes and particularly for growers,” Hort Innovation acting marketing lead Elisa King said. “There are about six billion emojis sent on a daily basis and with so many fruit emojis, it is about time one of Australia's favourite fruit has its own one.”
