The Unicode Consortium has announced 37 new emoji to be used in chats on smartphones and PCs coming in 2021: here they are
The new emoji were expected for a long time, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic their arrival in chats for PC and mobile devices has been postponed. Those who love to use the cute faces will be satisfied: the team of The Unicode Consortium has reiterated that there will be no need to wait any longer.
No more delays then, but new emoji coming by the end of 2021. The announcement comes from the official Twitter account of The Unicode Consortium, which has confirmed the release of Unicode 14.0 pointing out that among the 838 characters there are also 37 new emoji. The new smilies were selected from candidates that had already been presented last July and point to inclusivity, with the arrival of the pregnant person, designed to recognize that pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people. Or coral, as a reminder of how coral reefs are disappearing due to global warming.
Emoji in Unicode 14.0: all the new features
Among the new emoji are a new greeting, a smiley face that covers its face and peeks out of one eye, a melting face, a smiley face that holds back tears and different positions, and colors, for the hands. For example, fingers being snapped, the gesture of shaking hands from the right or left, a finger pointing in the style of “Uncle Sam” and even hands positioned to form a heart.
A mouth biting its lip, a troll, a person with a king’s crown and a new flower then appear in The Unicode Consortium’s official tweet. There is also no lack of coral announced in July, which was included to remember the coral reefs that are threatened by global warming.
Among the vegetables we still find the emoji of beans, while those of an empty nest and a nest with two eggs are added. And still the hand of Fatima, a slide, a life preserver, a car steering wheel, a dead battery, an X-ray and soap bubbles. The consortium also includes formal support for different skin tones, which will lead to the unification of the appearance of all emoji across different chat platforms, again with a view to greater inclusivity.
Emoji and Unicode 14.0: when they arrive
On its official Twitter account, The Unicode Consortium writes that the new emoji will arrive within the next year. As for Android and iOS devices, the 37 smilies of Unicode 14.0 could be included in an upcoming update that could be released in 2022. However, it’s not out of the question that Google users could see and use them on their devices even earlier, perhaps in the next release of the Gboard or Google Messages apps.