The redesigned syringe is part of Apple’s iOS 14.5 beta, which also has a number of new emoji options, including a heart on fire, a face with twirling eyes, and the ability for both women and men to have a beard .
By removing the blood from the syringe’s emoji, it becomes more appropriate to represent the Covid-19 vaccination, said Jeremy Burge, the chief emoji officer of Emojipedia, an online emoji dictionary. (He also said the change will not prevent the emoji from being used to represent donating blood.)
The move to make the emoji less graphic comes in the midst of the largest vaccine rollout in US history.
“Removing the blood makes this emoji more versatile and can also eliminate any misconception that vaccination involves blood,” Burge told CNN Business. “Whether this directly affects how the emoji is used or whether it supports vaccination coverage is not yet known, but it shouldn’t hurt.”