We are finally getting a fingers-crossed emoji. That and 71 other new emoji will soon be appearing on our phones.
The Unicode Consortium, which approves emoji designs, recently released the list of new emoji coming in June. The group approved them in 2015, but evidently it took until now to get them ready.
The new emoji in the 9.0 version of the Unicode Standard include a face palm, a raised eyebrow, an avocado, slices of bacon, a selfie, and two different kinds of scooters. It’s really almost too much to choose from.
Unicode
As we continue to rely on emoji to replace words or amplify conversations, these little icons and their implementation have become something of a cultural sticking point. No longer are emoji simply bonus graphics; now they represent the people who use mobile devices to communicate—and people want them to be more diverse.
Unicode
The Unicode Consortium also approved a dumpling emoji. That’s a big win for a Kickstarter project that used the food icon to highlight the emoji-approval ordeal and push for a more inclusive process. But the icon isn’t part of the 9.0 release; it’ll likely appear in the next one.
Unicode
While the 9.0 update brings a ton of lovely new emoji—and extends our emoji-selection scrolling time, no doubt—it doesn’t expand gender or hair options or introduce new careers for female emoji, such as those submitted by a group of Googlers hoping to improve workforce and gender representation among the graphics. The new emoji that deal with physical activity—including water polo, wrestling, and handball—are mostly male.
Facebook rolled out a suite of site-specific emoji earlier this week, adding more emoji diversity, including new female and gender-agnostic emoji, to its Messenger service.
