Middle finger emoji finally coming ... but only to Windows 10

WE HAVE waited several long years for it to come. But finally, our prayers have been answered and the middle finger emoji is here.

IT’S an internet breakthrough that will change the way we communicate. The day when you can flip the virtual bird is here.

The release of Windows 10 has given us the emoji many of us have longed for — a series of middle fingers in various skin tones. The updated software is officially named the “Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended.” But we all know what it means.

The existence of a middle finger emoji has been known since June 2014 when the Emoji gods — a group you probably have never heard of named the Univode Consortium — released their latest set of standards. Included in that was the option for a middle finger.

Most of your big boring tech companies like Apple and Google didn’t see the humour in the long awaited emoji and despite adopting the new standards, they left out the middle finger. But no, not Microsoft, the edgy, born-again cool kid of the technology world. Can’t you just imagine Bill Gates and Satya Nadella riding virtual hoverboards around Microsoft HQ giving each other the finger?

Microsoft is finally the cool kid company of Bill Gates’ dreams.

The update may be of use to our emoji loving foreign minister, who now has the option of telling Mr Putin what she really thinks without the usual diplomacy.

Sadly, it’s not fully integrated yet and is missing from the keyboard. But if you copy and paste the emoji character it will work just fine.

There’s no word on whether Apple or Google will eventually adopt the Emoji, but for now let’s all flock out and buy Windows Phones to get the complete Emoji experience we deserve.

This may be of use to our emoji loving foreign minister, who now has the option of telling Mr Putin what she really thinks without the usual diplomacy.