In the run-up to World Emoji Day, the emoji experts at Emojipedia have collected and published sample images of 31 new emoji characters slated for inclusion in version 15.0 of the Unicode Standard. Among the new emoji we expect to see on our phones and other devices later this year are a simple pink heart (along with gray and light blue versions), a high five, a vibrating face, a moose head, ginger root, maracas, wifi symbol, jellyfish and dire goose.
There are a few more hurdles for these emoji before we can start sending them to each other. First, they will need to bring it up to the final version of Unicode 15.0, which is currently slated for release in September 2022. Software developers will then need to create their own drawings for these characters and release them through software updates, which usually happens several months after the completion of the Unicode specification.
As Emojipedia notes, the proposed list of new emojis is notable for its small size — “in fact, it’s the smallest number of new emojis that Unicode has ever recommended.”It is also the first draft of the emoji list without new people emoji, although it does include new hand gestures, and the last few versions of the Unicode specification have cumulatively added hundreds of new people emojis. The Emoji Subcommittee has pushed in recent years to limit the number of new emoji included in any given release, citing how infrequently most emoji characters are used and how much work it takes for companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google and Samsung. ever growing lists of emoji in their software.
Emoji are usually the most commented element of any new Unicode standard, but the current draft version 15.0 adds a total of 4489 new characters, including those needed for the Kawi and Nag Mundari scripts. Unicode 15.0 will support a total of 149,186 characters, including 3,664 emoji characters (if all modifiers are included, including for skin, hair color, and gender).