A new batch of emojis have been revealed and, while there are symbols for the deaf and disabled and bunch more gender and skin tone variations, attention has turned to the hand gesture.
The sixth major refresh of the emoji collection since its creation, the list of new additions, in fact, consists of 59 unique new emoji symbols. The roster also includes 171 variants for gender and skin tone, bringing the full number available to 230.
The vast variety of symbols with significant numbers of variations are those depicting people, with those under the "person-activity" and "family" list making up the majority of the additions, images compiled by Emojipedia reveal.
Emoji singular emoji, plural emoji or emojis are ideograms and smileys used in electronic messages and web pages. Emoji exist in various genres, including facial expressions, common objects, places and types of weather, and animals. They are much like emoticons, but emoji are actual pictures instead of typographics.
Originally meaning pictograph, the word emoji comes from Japanese emoji the resemblance to the English words emotion and emoticon are purely coincidental. The ISO 15924 script code for emoji is Zsye.
Originating on Japanese mobile phones in 1997, emoji became increasingly popular worldwide in the 2010s after being added to several mobile operating systems. They are now considered to be a large part of popular culture in the west. In 2015, Oxford Dictionaries named the Face with Tears of Joy emoji the Word of the Year.
One of the most notable diversity pushes with this set of emoji is inclusivity of those who are physically disabled. The 2019 set includes a deaf person signing, a mechanical (or prosthetic) arm, and a person in a wheelchair.
There's also a touch more religious diversity, as mentioned above, with both a Hindu temple and Diya lamp emoji. Naturally, there are also a few new cute animals (flamingo, otter etc.) and delicious foods, including not only falafel but also waffle and oyster emoji.
It seems the pinching hand is the emoji the community has been calling for, with many sharing memes already in use, one of them a scene of Ross from Friends.
There are 171 variants for gender and skin tone, making a total of 230 emoji including variants. The "family" section consists of four versions of people holding hands, including pairings of a woman and man, two women, two men, and two people.
Other notable additions include multiple modes of transport, a Hindu temple, assorted food and drinks including waffles and juice boxes, assorted swimwear, and a selection of geometric shapes.
They'll start showing up on phones in September but some platforms might start releasing them earlier. Unicode is responsible for defining which emojis make it on to all platforms, including iPhones, Android devices and computers.
