Apple introduces 'Islamic' emojis

Emoji lovers rejoice as 150 new characters have been added to its growing library in Apple's latest software update, including a mosque, the Kaabah and a tasbeeh.

As part of the iOS 9.1 update for iPhone users, emoji were included from the latest unicode specification released this week, as well as 150 new emoticons.

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Among the new characters, many were excited by the mosque, Kaabah and the tasbeeh which are featured alongside other religious buildings, new food emoji and the much awaited and controversial middle finger.

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In the late 1990s, emojis were first developed in Japan as smiley-faced emoticons. They have since developed from graphically representing faces to depicting a whole lot of different things, including pets, objects and poo.



Twitter was abuzz with excitement as emoji fans shared their views on the new characters: