A Gender Inclusive Couple Emoji Is Coming In 2019, Along With 230 New Emoji Offerings
It's a new year, which means that new Emojis are on the way. On Tuesday, Feb. 5, the Unicode Consortium revealed that it had approved 230 new additions to the current lineup, which is quite a few more than last year's number of 157. Looking through the selection, I am excited that Unicode’s new Emojis for 2019 include sloths, waffles, and the much-requested white heart, as well as plenty of Emojis that are all about being more inclusive.
In a Feb. 5 blog post, the Unicode Consortium unveiled the finalists of its 2019 Emoji lineup, including quite a few that are all about making the experience more representative for users with disabilities as well as couples and friends who are gender inclusive or have different skin tones. It's a welcome upgrade for a platform that's always working to diversify its offerings in light of its very diverse client base, and it's cool to see that the developers were able to take Apple's proposal last year to add new accessibility Emojis and make it come to life. There are Emojis of service dogs, people using wheelchairs, people using a probing cane, people signaling that they are deaf, ears fitted with hearing aids, and prosthetic limbs.
In addition, couples and friends who are gender inclusive or have mixed skin tones can also better represent their relationship with more options than ever before.
Per usual, the developers also continued to expand upon their offerings of animals, food, and more, adding a customer-requested white heart, a one-piece swimsuit, waffles, butter, falafel, garlic, a juice, an oyster, the planet Saturn, a melting ice cube, an old time-y razor, and many more additions to the lineup. I noticed that there were quite a few culturally sensitive new options as well, including a sari, a Hindu temple, the South American mate tea, and a Diya lamp.
The animal additions are quirky but sure to be user favorites. A flamingo, a sloth, an otter, an orangutan, and a skunk are all part of the 2019 offerings.
In terms of facial expressions and actions, Unicode is adding a yawning face as well as pinching fingers and kneeling people. Shapes like squares and circles also now come in different colors.
You can see all the approved Emojis here:
After seeing all the colorful additions that are in the pipework, you might be wondering when you'll be seeing the 2019 Emojis on your smartphone or other smart devices. Unfortunately, you probably won't have access to Unicode's newest lineup for a while.
A rep for Unicode tells Elite Daily, "At this stage no release date is known for the new emojis on major platforms like iOS and Android."
The rep pointed out that it's likely that Android users will be getting the updates in August this year while iOS users can expect to add these new additions to their texting vernacular come November, judging by the trend of the past few years.
However, "companies like Twitter often implement their own custom emojis as soon as March or April," according to the Unicode rep, so you might be able to share your love of sloths via Emoji sooner than you think.
