Life
Unicode announces 72 new emojis including an avocado, streaky bacon and a pregnant woman
By Harriet Hall
9 years ago
If, like us, your communication with your friends is predominantly made up of emojis (who has time for words? We’d write our articles in emoji form if we could) then you’ll be as thrilled as we are to learn that there are 72 new emojis coming to an smart phone near you by the end of the month.
The new critters were announced by the official emoji encyclopaedia, Emojipedia, this week – alongside a mock-up of the new characters.
Brunch fans will gleefully welcome the much pined-after avocado, as well as streaky bacon and boiled egg emojis, while champagne and prosecco lovers can enjoy two glasses of bubbly, and the eat clean clan can enjoy a hearty bowl of salad. There’s also set to be a baguette, a whiskey on the rocks and several new animals – including a shark, a soaring eagle and a gorilla.
The emoji population will also be increasing, with a new batch of women – one doing an exasperated face palm, one taking a selfie, a pregnant woman and….none other than Mrs Claus (because, who do you think really puts in the elbow grease on Christmas eve?)
The new emoji keyboard will also include men playing water polo, disco dancing, wrestling and a prince.
The new emojis, that will be available with version 9.0 of Unicode, will be available to Apple, Google and Microsoft phones from 21 June. However, they are likely to be rolled out to users at a later date.
Emojipedia founder, Jeremy Burge, tells The Guardian of the new emojis:
“I’m a big avocado-for-breakfast kind of guy, so that will be the one I use a lot. I’m sure the face palm will also be very popular. It’s a very flexible gesture.”
He says the mock-up versions of the new emojis are a “best guess” as to what the new characters will look like.
Although we are hugely excited that our digital communication will soon require even fewer actual words, the new characters still leave a lot to be desired by way of breaking the emoji glass ceiling. Criticism surrounding the representation of women in emoji land has been rife – with women represented as brides, princesses and sassy sistas, while male emojis can be sportsmen, spies, construction workers and police officers.
Ask a Feminist contributor, Grace Dent, has even petitioned for period emojis, while others have mocked-up a range of diverse vagina emojis.
In May, Google put forward a proposal for 13 new female emojis, that showed women in professions from medicine to farming.
“Everything in (Google's proposal) looks great, it looks very well done, there's a wide range,” says Burge, “I'd love to see more professions (for women) included.”
What do you think of the new emojis? Please share your thoughts in emoji form in the comment box, below.
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