Google is removing the egg from its salad emoji as part of a drive to make it more inclusive for vegans.

The emoji is being edited in the Android P Beta 2 software update, which is due to come out this summer, along with a host of other emoji alterations.

Jennifer Daniel, the UX Manager for Google emoji who has been sharing the some of the upcoming Android emoji changes on Twitter, heralded the move as proof that the company was making diversity and inclusion a “priority”.

She said: “There's big talk about inclusion and diversity at Google so if you need any evidence of Google is making this priority may I direct your attention to the emoji— we've removed the egg in Android P beta 2, making this a more inclusive vegan salad.”

Ms Daniel later added that the move was also to bring the salad in line with the Unicode industry standard description of the emoji, which doesn’t include egg.

Other changes Google is making to its emoji include introducing ones representing bald people as well as those with grey, ginger and curly hair.

Away from its inclusivity drive, Ms Daniel announced other emojis tweaks, such as a goat, which is being edited to look less aggressive.

In a recent interview with Outline, Ms Daniel said that Android users had strong opinions on emoji and often submitted edit suggestions in the form of bug reports.

One of the submissions on the old salad emoji read: “The Greek salad emoji includes a hard boiled egg. I’d like to suggest that this should be replaced with a cucumber slice, or other items. The unicode’s description of this emoji is a ‘bowl of healthy salad containing lettuce, tomato, and other salad items such as cucumbers.’ The inclusion of eggs is unnecessary.”

The changes also come against a backdrop of Google and its parent company Alphabet being roiled by a series of diversity scandals over the last year.

Last summer the company fired one of its engineers for "perpetuating gender stereotypes" after he distributed a 10-page manifesto calling initiatives to encourage women programmers “unfair”.

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The engineer, James Damore, also accused Google of political bias and discriminating against him for being a white man with conservative views.

The manifesto and decision to fire Damore touched off a heated internal debate within Google and led to some voicing concern as to whether it would inhibit employees from expressing their views.

There were more ructions earlier this week when investors tabled a motion at Alphabet’s AGM to tie executive pay to diversity targets.

The motion was voted down but Alphabet chairman John Hennessy said the board would be considering more diverse director candidates.