72 new emojis incoming and, yes, there’s a selfie one

3 Jun 2016

Emoji lovers will soon be getting their hands on 72 new emojis, following the latest update by Unicode, with new ones including a selfie, a facepalm and… a stuffed flatbread?

Who says conversation is dead, when you can have conversations entirely in emojis?

While we have probably all sent the the ‘crying with laughter’ emoji, which was Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year last year, believe it or not, there are hundreds of other emojis that you have probably never seen, let alone used.

From birds to squids

Now, the authority that determines the rollout of standardised emojis, Unicode, has revealed that, as of 21 June, iOS, Android etc users will be able to include 72 new emojis in their keyboards.

While the rollout depends on when the different operating systems update after this date, it seems that the vast majority of the new emojis are playing it safe, with new foods such as some sizzling bacon and stuffed flatbread.

We’ve also gotten some more wildlife, particularly of the avian variety, including a duck, owl and eagle, as well as aquatic animals like a shark and squid.

Emojipedia

Mock-ups of the new Unicode 9.0 emojis created by Emojipedia

Shrug included by popular demand

There’s also some new faces we’ll get to send to each other that are definitely not of the flattering variety, such as a person looking sick, someone sneezing and even a Pinocchio-like person whose nose is growing because of a lie.

Three new emojis stand out, however, as they were included for both falling into the cultural zeitgeist and as a result of popular demand: the selfie, facepalm and shrug emojis.

Going by Emojipedia’s list of most popular emojis, the shrug one will be particularly welcomed in the latest Unicode 9.0 update, along with the inclusion of a darker, heavy black heart.

Not all proposed emojis made it into this update, however, with two being rejected with suggestions that vendors would not support them.

These included one indicating a rifle, which is probably of no surprise, but, strangely, there was also seemingly no need to include the modern pentathlon.

Emoji toys image via Frank Behrens/Flickr

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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