Serena’s husband Ohanian wants emojis for interracial couples

LONDON: Alexis Ohanian, husband of tennis superstar Serena Williams and Reddit co-founder, fully supports Tinder's petition to Unicode to introduce a wide range of emojis for interracial couples.

According to the tech firm, the original yellow skin tone is available at present for about 34 emojis for relationships and families even though there's specific request for  three skin tones - light, medium, and dark skin tones  to add to each face in the couple with heart and kissing emoji.

"We want our kids to have emojis that look like their parents," Alexis is reported to have said, adding  ; "[Emoji] the universal language of the internet and should reflect the modern world where interracial relationships are normal."

A group of advocates, including dating app Tinder, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian and the founder of Emojinotion, Jennifer 8, have asked Unicode Consortium to add  21 different sequences with various skin tones for the existing emoji, "couple with heart," for example.

The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit body which reviews and develops emoji standards - including making things more inclusive.

Unicode  will have to vote on the proposal that might take up to two years before it's rolled out on different platforms.

"As the largest and most diverse platform for meeting new people, we are uniquely positioned and incredibly proud to petition for this update. Tinder is reported to have  said.