Scroll down for the list of new emoji for 2017
Every year a slew of new emoji is designed, proposed and introduced. 2016 gave us a more diverse range of people and the facepalm emoji as part of Unicode 9.0.
This year is set to see the introduction of even more deserved emoji; notably, a fairy, vampire, bearded person, a "shocked face with exploding head" and "face with open mouth vomiting" among others. Although the list was revealed last year, more recent mock-up images, created by Emojipedia, include the hedgehog, England and Scotland flags, pie and dinosaurs.
Decisions about which emoji should be created are decided by the Unicode Consortium, and the organisation has updated its shortlist (consolidated proposal) for 2017's emoji.
The full list has 69 emoji that could be "accepted for encoding in Unicode 10.0", including male and female versions of individual emoji. A number of these emoji will also have different skin tones. However, the "intended appearance" of the latest characters may change before they come to phones and devices and they also need to be approved by the 'Emoji Subcommittee'.
Within the new emoji, there are also the usual food updates that seem to come with each iteration of the characters. Broccoli, pie, pretzel, a cup with a straw, coconut, and a sandwich are set to the added to the familiar eggplant/aubergine and bowl of rice lineup.
Set to be added to the animals section is not one but two dinosaur species. A T-rex is listed alongside a sauropod – with Brontosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus all listed as 'possible annotations'. Less prehistoric animals will include a hedgehog, zebra face, giraffe face, and a cricket.
The biggest category of updates, however, is those are related to people. The Emoji Subcommittee is "proposing 36 Emoji Faces for encoding". This includes the emoji with a nuclear explosion coming from its head – described as "shocked face with exploding head (or encode 'mushroom cloud')". There's also 'sad face with lip pursed,' 'expressionless face with bruises and bandage' and 'expressionless face half covered by hair'.
For the first time, a person with a Hijab is listed as a possible emoji, continuing the much-needed diversification of emoji. Elsewhere in the list, many of which have been revealed within the last few months, is a brain, scarf, gloves, mermaid and merman, wizard, older adult, and zombie.
The Unicode 10 update with all the new emoji – once approved – will be released in 2017. Individual mobile phone operators, websites and applications can then implement the characters into their products.
Giving an indication of the time it takes for emoji to reach end consumers, the latest developer version of iOS 10 has only just introduced some of the new emoji from Unicode 9.0.
When released to the public the incremental update to the iPhone and iPad's operating system will include 72 new emoji, including a gorilla and bacon.
- Flying saucer
- I love you hand sign
- Grinning face with star eyes
- Grinning face with crazy eyes
- Face with finger covering closed lips
- Serious face with symbols covering mouth
- Smiling face with smiling eyes and hand covering mouth
- Face with open mouth vomiting
- Shocked face with exploding head
- Breastfeeding
- Palms up together
- Curling stone
- Bowl with spoon
- Cup with straw
- Coconut
- Broccoli
- Pie
- Pretzel
- Cut of meat
- Sandwich
- Canned food
- Giraffe face
- Zebra face
- Hedgehog
- Sauropod
- T-rex
- Cricket
- Face with monocle
- Older adult
- Bearded person
- Person with headscarf
- Person in steamy room
- Person climbing
- Person in lotus position
- Sorceress
- Fairy (male and female)
- Vampire (male and female)
- Mermaid/Merperson
- Elf (male and female)
- Genie (male and female)
- Brain
- Orange heart
- Green heart
- Yellow heart
- Blue heart
- Purple heart
- Billed cap
- Scarf
- Gloves
- Coat
- Socks
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
