The list of emoji candidates that could be approved by the Unicode Consortium later this year includes a moose, a jellyfish, a shaking head, and more. Emojis are often the true embodiment of the old saying, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ They are one of the most fun ways of expressing people’s feelings online and are often used in lieu of actual words for greater impact. For example, the tears of joy emoji could immediately put a smile on someone’s face, while a crying emoji can make people sad or disheartened, based on the underlying message.
Unicode typically approves new emojis every September and is expected to approve Emoji 15 later this year. It is expected to add a slew of new emojis that will be available for widespread use in the coming months. Emoji 14 was approved last September alongside Unicode 14 and brought a ton of new emojis, including most notably, a pregnant man. Some of the other additions include a multi-racial handshake, melting face, saluting face, biting lip, a person with crown, troll, X-Ray, mirror disco ball and more.
Ahead of the World Emoji Day on July 17, Emoji reference website Emojipedia has released sample designs for each emoji candidate that is up for approval by the Unicode Consortium later this year. Some of the more notable options in the list include a moose, a jellyfish, a shaking face, a goose, a donkey, a pink heart, a grey heart, a light blue heart, etc. The emoji designs created by Emojipedia give internet users a sneak peek into how these emojis might look if approved.
Not All Of The Candidate Emojis Will Be Approved
Not all of the candidate emojis will be approved, although historically, most of the emojis on the shortlist end up getting confirmed. However, even then, they might look different from the images created by Emojipedia and would also likely vary from platform to platform. While Unicode will confirm the final list in September, it might take a while for the emojis to roll out for public use, as various vendors will take their own sweet time to draw up their iterations of the emojis for their respective platforms.
Interestingly, Emojipedia notes that the number of emojis submitted for approval has diminished drastically over the years. This year’s Emoji 15 draft includes only 31 candidates, making it officially the smallest number of submissions ever. In comparison, last year’s Emoji 14 draft included as many as 112 candidates, while the Emoji 13 and 13.1 drafts had as many as 334 emoji candidates combined. What’s more, for the first time, there are no people emoji in the shortlist, which is dominated this year by animals, birds, objects and hand gestures.
