The Unicode Consortium has officially signed off on the final list of emoji characters for 2019. There will be a slew of new options in various categories.
All in all, the Emoji 12.0 standard will introduce 59 distinct new characters this year. With gender and skin tone variations, there will be 230 total options.
- Some of the new animal additions include flamingo, otter, sloth, and orangutan characters.
- Emoji 12.0 will also add food options like falafel, butter, potatoes, garlic, onions, a waffle, and a juice box.
- As far as people emoji, the update will introduce standing and kneeling people, as well as a yawning face.
- In addition, the 2019 list includes two people holding hands that can be modified with a range of gender and skin tone options.
- There are also new accessibility emoji and characters to represent individuals with disabilities, such as a person in a wheelchair, a person walking with a cane, a deaf person, a guide dog, a service dog, a manual wheelchair, and an electric wheelchair.
- Some of the other miscellaneous additions include a Hindu temple, a person parachuting, a safety vest, an ice cube, a sari, a white heart and gold heart, a hatchet, a shaving blade, a band-aid, a drop of blood, a stethoscope, new bathing suits, and a wooden chair.
Every year, the Unicode Consortium drafts and approves a new list of emoji characters. Once they do, the options are available for smartphone manufacturers and other tech firms to use in their own operating systems and platforms.
While the standardized list has been approved, it typically takes Apple a few months before it introduces new emoji in its operating systems.
Last year, for example, Apple added Emoji 11.0 to the iOS 12.1 update in October. We could see the company do something similar for iOS 13 after the software is debuted at WWDC ’19 this summer. In addition to iOS, the new options will also come to Apple’s other operating systems.
You can view the full list of approved emoji in Unicode 12.0 over at Emojipedia. Keep in mind that these are just sample images and smartphone OEMs could slightly tweak their design before they are rolled out.