Saltire emoji to be released this summer

EMOJIs featuring the flags of England, Scotland and Wales will be officially released later this year, it has been announced.

By The Newsroom Friday, 27th January 2017, 1:54 pm Updated Friday, 27th January 2017, 2:00 pm

British social media users have been campaigning for individual UK emojis since 2015.

Up until now, only the Union Flag was featured among the hundreds of emojis available for use on smartphones and across the web, leaving patriots and sports fans up and down the United Kingdom frustrated that they couldn’t cheer on their constituent nations.

Sign up to our daily newsletter The i newsletter cut through the noise Sign up Thanks for signing up! Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting...

Each of the three flags were passed for approval during a meeting if the Unicode Technical Committee, the governing body which decides what computer texts, characters and emojis will be made available across various platforms, including Apple; Android; Facebook; and Twitter.

It is expected that British emoji fans will be able to download the new set on to their devices in the second half of this year.

Other emoji flag symbols available include Djibouti; Curaçao; and the British Crown dependency, the Isle of Man.

Emoji aficionados in Northern Ireland will be left disappointed, however, as the Northern Irish standard has no official status.

Ex-First Minister Alex Salmond is among the famous faces who had pledged their support for an emoji featuring the flag of Scotland.