I have a feeling the Russian invasion of Ukraine has something to do with this. As a Russian speaker in the US, I've already had some weird conversations with coworkers because of the Russian flag as a keyboard indicator. Obviously this is a minor inconvenience for me, but it seems outmoded to attach a language/keyboard layout to a national flag
Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
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Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#22I don't really see how having "EN" instead of a US or UK or whatever flag is really going to make people happier or sadder.
Flags are powerful symbols for many people, some of which probably proudly displayed their respective one in the menu bar as a matter of virtue.
Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#23The Unicode Consortium has indicated they won't accept new flags as emoji. https://www.engadget.com/unicode-no-flag-emoji-please-131509... Given this, it's a sensible move; it won't be long before the available set no longer reflects the full set of countries.
That's mostly correct, but flags for countries with a recognised ISO country code will still be included, with I guess the most recent example being South Sudan.
Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#24In Ukraine this matters for a lot of people. Half if not the majority of ukrainians are russian-speaking and confusing russian language with russia is not something we like.
What I don't understand is why Apple cannot simply make this a toggle option in settings somewhere. No, it has to work one way and one way only...
Isn't that how Apple operates with everything in every instance?
Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#25I 100% applaud this. I've always used ABC Extended because I thought a flag in the system menu was gaudy and weirdly nationalistic. I know I live in the US and use the American English keyboard layout. Similarly, I don't need a Chinese flag every time I switch to a Chinese keyboard.
What's wrong with nationalism? Do you also think supporting your local community is weird?
The specific claim was weirdly nationalistic, which seems reasonable since lots of users outside America use the “American English” keyboard layout, to the point where it’s not clear why that’s the right signifier. Probably more Indian users use that layout than Americans.
Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#26In Ukraine this matters for a lot of people. Half if not the majority of ukrainians are russian-speaking and confusing russian language with russia is not something we like.
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Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#27I 100% applaud this. I've always used ABC Extended because I thought a flag in the system menu was gaudy and weirdly nationalistic. I know I live in the US and use the American English keyboard layout. Similarly, I don't need a Chinese flag every time I switch to a Chinese keyboard.
What's wrong with nationalism? Do you also think supporting your local community is weird?
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Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#28I 100% applaud this. I've always used ABC Extended because I thought a flag in the system menu was gaudy and weirdly nationalistic. I know I live in the US and use the American English keyboard layout. Similarly, I don't need a Chinese flag every time I switch to a Chinese keyboard.
What's wrong with nationalism? Do you also think supporting your local community is weird?
Hanging a personal US flag in the US is a symbol of national pride (often by veterans) or a gaudy "'murica, fuck yeah!" statement (something like a dual axle pickup you only drive to Walmart) depending on your leanings.
Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#29Flags are not the way to define a language preference. This design decision assumes 1:1 parity with flag and language which is just not true.
This move makes language preferences less ambiguous or potentially less offensive and I applaud Apple for doing it.
Re: Apple Removes Flag Icons in Monterey 12.4
#30I mean this seems broadly more sensible as a default option – it's quite hard to create a clear mapping between "keyboard layout" and "national flag".
If you would like to add a flag of some kind to the menu bar anyway, I'm sure it would be very straightforward to whip up a little application to add whatever icon you want up there!