Apple is reportedly changing their mask-wearing emoji to smile with its eyes.
The mask-wearing emoji used to represent being sick, what some might consider a neutral-to-sad feeling.
In 2020, this emoji is now one of the most popular icons used in tweets about the coronavirus, according to Emojipedia, and represents the normalcy of wearing a mask regardless of symptoms and current health status.
In the next release of Apple’s iOS, this emoji will be getting a mood change, so to speak.
It’s downturned eyes will be replaced with rounded eyes, eyebrows and blushing cheeks - the exact same features of the smiling face emoji, reports Emojipedia.
😷 Face with Medical Mask dates back to the original Japanese emoji sets, and was added to Unicode in 2010 https://t.co/Jz1OkuoAC9 https://t.co/zjMj1dgIst pic.twitter.com/fXe9vn1mCD
— Emojipedia (@Emojipedia) March 16, 2020
Just because Apple changes the way their mask-wearing emoji appears does not mean it will change across every operating system and platform. It will be up to those companies to make changes if they wish.

Image: Vendor designs / Emojipedia composites.
There are other emoji updates coming in Apple’s iOS14 update, including male and female characters bottle feeding a baby, roller skates, various insects and animals, and icons meant to represent more inclusivity around gender identification.
👀 New emojis in iOS 14.2 beta https://t.co/883idFLiJn pic.twitter.com/KMmATUf6NQ
— Emojipedia (@Emojipedia) September 29, 2020