Lacrosse fans, tomorrow is the day.
After two years of waiting and waiting for a lacrosse emoji, we can finally say that we have our very own. Apple reported that it will release 70 new emojis as part of the iOS 12.1 update on Tuesday. In that group is the lacrosse emoji.
The. Official. Lacrosse. Emoji.
Lacrosse fans around the world should be able to use the lacrosse emoji across all iPhones and iPads starting sometime on Tuesday, part of an update that includes Group FaceTime and Depth Control in real-time preview.
Along with the lacrosse emoji, users will be able to scroll along the Emoji Keyboard and find characters with red, curly and gray hair as well as a softball, frisbee and skateboard. Click here for the full list of new emojis.
Tuesday marks the end of a two-year journey for Nicole Bohorad, who in 2016 spearheaded an application to the Unicode Consortium for the lacrosse emoji. She detailed the history of the game and the growing popularity on social media in the proposal, which got the backing of US Lacrosse CEO Steve Stenersen and Tewaaraton Foundation Executive Director Sarah Aschenbach.
“It’s really exciting to be part of an amazing team who believed in the cause and continued the support from day one of this 695-day journey," she said. "So glad to see the lacrosse community’s passion for wanting to use this emoji, even getting it voted as the Most Anticipated Emoji of 2018. I’m thrilled we had the opportunity to get this approved to support lacrosse fans, teams, and players everywhere and to help grow the game."
"It has been a long, but exciting process and after 695 days the lacrosse world is finally getting an emoji to call our own," Aschenbach said.
Bohorad and her team helped raise awareness for the proposal on social media — where fans had long been asking for a #laxemoji. In December of 2017, Unicode, the company responsible for selecting emojis, included the lacrosse emoji in its beta version for Emoji 11.0.
It was a major achievement for the sport, and later magnified when the Unicode Technical Committee voted the lacrosse emoji in as an official member of Emoji 11.0. That was in January, and lacrosse fans waited until earlier this month to find out when exactly the lacrosse emoji would hit phones everywhere.
Lacrosse Twitter briefly rejoiced when a version of the emoji hit the popular platform in June. But on Oct. 2, it was revealed that the emoji would join as part of the iOS 12.1 update. Now, we've finally arrived at the finish line.
So lacrosse fans — tweet, text, Instagram, or whatever the kids are doing these days. The lacrosse emoji will be officially here, and it's here to stay.