Muslim, Jewish Emoji: Apple iOS 9.1 Will Add Mosque, Synagogue, Kaaba And Menorah Icons For The Faithful

The emojiverse continues to get more inclusive. About five months after Apple released its iOS 8.3, which featured racially diverse emoji images, another update is coming with Apple’s iOS 9.1 release this fall.

Among highly anticipated new emojis like the taco and unicorn, the faithful will also have more to choose from. The new release includes a synagogue, a mosque and even the Kaaba, the black cubical structure in Mecca that serves as Islam’s most famous and significant house of God.

There will also a be a Jewish menorah with nine branches, prayer beads, and a generic symbol of a person on his knees, signifying a place of worship. There had long been several Christian church emojis to choose from.

Almost every other category will have updated emojis, as well. Other notable additions include a robot face, award medals, a wedge of cheese and a bottle with a popping cork.

The new emojis in Apple’s update are based on 41 new characters approved in June by the Unicode Consortium, an organization that sets the standard for options across various platforms.

Apple's iOS 9.1 is currently in beta, which is accessible to developers with paid accounts, reports the NextWeb. It will be made available to the public later this year. (The new emojis won’t be included in the iOS 9 release on Sept. 16.) It’s unclear when other operating systems such as Android will offer the new emojis as well.