You might have thought that there are more than enough emojis to go around these days. But you would have thought wrong. More than 100 new emojis are coming to a phone near you later this year, courtesy of Unicode Consortium.
The group announced today (Jan. 29) that it's approved 117 new emojis as part of the final Unicode Emoji 13.0 for 2020. That total includes 62 new emojis along 55 gender and skin-tone variants that also incorporate more new gender-inclusive emojis.
For instance, an emoji of someone feeding a baby now includes men, women and gender-neutral versions, available in a multitude of skin tones. There are gender-inclusive versions of a person in a veil and someone wearing a tuxedo as well. Santa Claus is available in a gender-inclusive version, too, called Mx. Claus. Emojipedia reports that this builds on the 138 gender-neutral emojis added late last year.
In another step toward inclusivity, Emoji 13.0 includes both the transgender flag emoji as well as the transgender symbol.
A lot of the new emojis fall under the "Wait, this isn't already an emoji?" category, at least for a me, a person who does not really stay on top of emojis. I would have guessed that there were already symbols for pickup trucks, teapots, and piñatas, but there apparently were not — at least until now.
Animals are a big part of the new bath of emojis, with a specificity that pushes the limits of usefulness. Do we really need an emoji for a dodo, an animal that went extinct around 300 years ago? Well, at least an emoji will be waiting for it, should the dodo make an unexpected comeback. There's now a polar bear emoji, too, saving you valuable time from typing out "Help, I'm being eaten by a polar bear" without having to sacrifice accuracy.
Food items from bubble tea to fondue to tamales will soon be represented as well, making it much easier to signify what you've got a hankering for.
Expect the new emojis to arrive by this fall, with their final look and feel subject to the whims of different platforms.
