Microsoft 'Middle Finger' Emoji Set for Windows 10! What History Says About the Gesture

The "middle finger" now has an emoji brought to the tech world by Microsoft.

Quartz said the upcoming Windows 10's update for phones and personal computers includes support for the "middle finger" emoji, making Microsoft the first giant tech company to introduce it.

The same report noted that the Unicode Consortium which dictates the official emoji language has already added the "reversed hand with middle finger extended" last year, though it was still the discretion of companies like Apple, Google and Twitter to have it in their platforms.

With the latest iOS update, Apple reportedly added other emojis as well but has not introduced the middle finger for its devices.

"The middle finger emoji was approved as part of Unicode 7 in mid-2014, yet has curiously remained absent from iOS, OS X, Android, and Windows. Until now," said Emojipedia in its blog.

The same report noted that Microsoft is also doing away with the "traditional yellow emoji" but will not make use of gray.

"Taking on board the Unicode recommendation that the default skin tone of emoji people should be generic (nonhuman) in appearance, Windows now displays gray-skinned people as the race-neutral default. This is used when no specific skin tone is chosen," added Emojipedia.

Microsoft is also the first one to use gray as a default as Google and Apple still use the bright shade of yellow as the default skin tone.

PC Mag added that users can also adjust the skin tones of the emojis made available for them. There are five skin options aside from the neutral gray and they are pale, cream white, moderate brown, dark brown, and black.

"Microsoft has also tinkered with some of the emoji in its stable for Windows 10, for example adding an emoji woman's face to its Haircut Emoji and making some changes large and small to an assortment of emoji faces," noted PC Mag.

The Information Desk Person was also reportedly changed in the latest update with it transforming from "a blocky silhouette in Windows 8.1 to a winking, animated woman much like the same emoji in iOS and Mac OS," PC Mag wrote.

The middle finger, which has been considered as something offensive for most people, has not really been used mainstream for tech communication.

Daily Mail explained that giving someone the finger would mean "moderate to extreme contempt."

"Many cultures use similar gestures to display their disrespect, though others use it to express pointing with no intentional disrespect toward other cultures. The gesture dates back to Ancient Greece and was also used in Ancient Rome, and represented the phallus," added Daily Mail.

This could really be the primary reason why big tech companies has refrained from including the middle finger in the list of emojis. But now that Microsoft has taken the leap, will others also follow?