Emoji became extremely popular in with the release of iOS 5 in 2012. The feature allowed folks to add some zazz and emotion to messages and posts, along with a bit more color to virtual conversations.
The iOS 8.3 beta 2 update specifically added support for several ethnicities to emoji, along with 32 to new country flags. Back in March 2014 Apple said, "there needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.
Emoji is created by Unicode Consortium so it's technically out of Apple's hands who the company decides to add or remove. Folks can look forward to all of the aforementioned emoji as well as a scrolling picker when the iOS 8.3 update releases to the public.
