The official list of new emojis announced
Unicode, the worldwide emoji regulation consortium, has approved this year’s batch of new additions. There are 117 new emoji to look forward to, and though they won’t be actively released for several months, we’ve got our sights what to expect later this year. You could even call it 2020 vision.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen Unicode expand the variety of skin tone options, improve the representation of women, address gender inclusivity, include emoji for various disabilities, and – perhaps most importantly – add support for those with ginger hair.
This year looks to continue the trend of inclusivity, with 55 new variants of old emoji to better represent different skin tones and genders. Some emoji which were previously exclusive to one gender – such as feeding baby, tuxedo, and veil – now have three variants: male, female, and gender-neutral. There are even new versions of Santa!
Beyond those changes, Unicode is adding 62 entirely new emoji including a smiling face with a tear, a face wearing a comical disguise, and a ninja. A range of new foods, animals, and objects draw from all around the world: bubble tea, polar bears, piñatas, and boomerangs all feature. The transgender flag has also been approved by Unicode after its successful proposal last year.
You can see the full rundown of all 117 additions in the below video from Emojipedia. Remember that although the content is likely to be the same everywhere, major vendors like Apple, Google, and Microsoft tend to have their own interpretations of each emoji in their trademark style. So the final set coming iOS later this year may look slightly different than this Emojipedia mockup.
Based on the recent history, we expect these new emoji to be available to all users alongside the launch of iOS 13 this September – though Apple could, in theory, add them much sooner.