A moose, a donkey and a pair of maracas; This isn’t the start of a sick joke, but rather of some of the emojis that could be coming soon to a smartphone near you.
Emojipedia is previewing Emoji 15.0 (opens in new tab) which is a group of 31 emojis that are vying to be added to the huge catalog. This particular group doesn’t really have a cohesive theme, but is more of a fill-in-the-blank. Some were in high demand, like the pink heart, while others seem to have a greater function. For example, you can use the new Pushing Hand emoji instead of crossed hands (opens in new tab) to simulate a high-five.
The emoji zoo is also expanding to include a goose, crow and jellyfish, while a ginger root and pea pod are being added to the digital menu. The miscellaneous category includes a shaking face emoji, a wing, a Wi-Fi signal, the Khanda, which is a religious symbol of the Sikh faith, and a flute.
As of this preview, the emoji will be judged by the Unicode Consortium before being officially released. A council of elders handpicking emojis might seem silly, but if you look at them statute document (opens in new tab), makes sense because they need to exist. Essentially, the group establishes a universal standard for emojis that will work across all major operating systems and Internet applications.
The final list of Emoji 15.0 will be released in September, where the world will see who is giving the thumbs up and who is being discarded. According to Emojipedia’s estimated timeline, developers expect Google and Android platforms to be early adopters of the new emojis from October 2022. And from January 2023, Apple, Samsung are expected to , Twitter and Facebook do the same. Emojipedia states that these dates are based on estimates from the previous year, so they may change. Some platforms may adopt much later or earlier than before.
While you wait for the final selection, Emojipedia is asking users to participate in a survey as part of World Emoji Day on July 17th. First, the developers would like to know which of the new emoji you are most excited about (opens in new tab) (we choose the trembling face). And on Twitter, they’re holding a double elimination tournament for the emoji that best represents 2022 (opens in new tab).
Curiosities about emojis
Also in the announcement, Emojipedia revealed some Interesting emoji trivia and statistics (opens in new tab).
Emoji usage hit an all-time high in 2022. According to Emojipedia numbers, 22% of Tweets had at least one emoji before peaking in June 2022. They also revealed that Face with tears of joy (opens in new tab) was the most used emoji since 2011 until it was usurped by guy crying out loud (opens in new tab) in March 2021. Since then, the two have been embroiled in a struggle for global supremacy. At the time of writing this article, Loudly Crying Face is the king of the emoji world.
If you’re still hungry for more emoji news, we recommend you check out the latest news at Slack users having trouble using inappropriate emojis.