Microsoft’s Windows 10 will bring rude middle finger emoji, opts for grey as default skin tone

Windows 10 will be the first operating system to support the swearing hands, a decision some have hailed as brave. Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android don’t yet support the swearing finger, which was approved as part of the emoji keyboard in mid-2014.

The new operating system will also feature five new skin tones, as well as the default grey. That means that Microsoft catches up with Apple in offering the diverse characters — though Apple chose yellow as its default — and Windows 10 features what emoji site Emojipedia calls “pale, cream white, moderate brown, dark brown and black skin tones”.

Six shades of middle finger emoji. Image: Emojipedia The middle finger emoji also comes in those six different colours.

As well as the middle finger update, Microsoft has changed many of the other smiley faces. The faces representing relives, confounded, and triumphant among others have been moved to be more similar to their counterparts designed by Google and Apple.