Pronouns and my phone’s address book

Or, finally!

For years, my phone, and yours, did not have a default way to list the pronouns of the people in your contacts. There were ways around it, sure. You could use the nickname field, or add them after their last name in that field. You could put them in the notes. You could use the field intended for the name of their business position. But you couldn’t put them in a field meant for pronouns.

My phone is made by Apple. Apple is a company that prides itself on doing things its own way. They buck outdated standards that do not support their corporate values, which are without a doubt, socially progressive.

And yet, until this year, they refused to add a pronoun field to their contacts app. Why? There was no official reason that had been published, but unofficially they argued that international contact data standards did not allow for such a field.

Well, no longer. As of this past summer (2023), Apple has a standard, easily visible way of displaying pronouns for your contacts. It is, as was speculated about any possible solution Apple might come up with, only compatible with Apple apps, because international contact data standards still don’t have a field designated for this, in 2023.

Here’s an article: https://9to5mac.com/2023/09/19/pronouns-ios-17/

One amazing feature they don’t discuss in the article above (because they aren’t queer and don’t recognize this is a thing?), you can designate more than one set of pronouns! So, on my own contacted I can set pronouns as ey/em/eirs, and then I can make a second set for they/them/theirs!

Fuck. To. The. Yes.

I’m now going to go through and add pronouns to everyone I care about.

You should, too.


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