New Emojis Coming in 2024: What to Expect

Every year, the Unicode Consortium—the organization responsible for standardizing emojis across platforms—releases new emoji sets that eventually make their way to our devices. The 2024 emoji update, part of Unicode 16.0, brings a fresh batch of expressive icons to enhance our digital communication. Let's explore what's coming to your emoji keyboard this year.

New Facial Expressions and People

The 2024 update continues to expand our emotional vocabulary with new facial expressions:

• Phoenix Face: A face rising from flames, representing rebirth, transformation, or "rising from the ashes" after difficulty.
• Shaking Face Side to Side: Building on the popular up-and-down shaking face from 2022, this new variant shows disagreement or a firm "no."
• Biting Lip Face: Representing nervousness, anticipation, or flirtation.
• Peeking Face: A face peeking from behind hands, showing shyness, embarrassment, or playful hiding.

New people-focused emojis include:

• Person with Walking Cane (additional skin tones): Expanding on accessibility representation with more inclusive options.
• Person Meditating (additional poses): New variations of the meditation pose to represent different meditation practices.
• Family variations: Additional family combination options to represent more diverse family structures.

Animals and Nature

Nature lovers will appreciate these new additions to the animal and plant kingdom:

• Phoenix: The mythical bird that rises from its own ashes, representing rebirth and renewal.
• Crow: Often associated with mystery and intelligence, filling a gap in the bird emoji collection.
• Beaver: Representing hard work, determination, and construction.
• Jellyfish: A long-requested marine creature, adding to the underwater emoji ecosystem.
• Bamboo: Symbolizing strength, flexibility, and sustainable resources.
• Aloe Vera: Representing healing, skincare, and wellness.

Food and Drink

Our virtual pantry continues to expand with these culinary additions:

• Lime: Complementing the existing lemon emoji, perfect for representing cocktails, Mexican cuisine, or a touch of zest.
• Ginger Root: Representing spice, health foods, and Asian cuisine.
• Brown Egg: Adding diversity to the existing white egg emoji.
• Boba/Bubble Tea: The popular Taiwanese drink that has gained global popularity.
• Empanada: The beloved Latin American pastry, adding to global food representation.

Objects and Symbols

Practical and symbolic objects joining the emoji library include:

• Broken Chain: Symbolizing freedom, breaking free from constraints, or broken links.
• Folding Hand Fan: Representing cooling off, elegance, or cultural traditions.
• Crutch: Adding to accessibility representation.
• Mosquito Net: Representing protection, particularly relevant for global health discussions.
• Root Chakra Symbol: The first in a potential series of chakra symbols, representing spiritual and wellness concepts.
• Wireless/WiFi Symbol: A practical symbol for connectivity in our digital age.

Activities and Sports

New ways to express hobbies and activities are coming:

• Person Playing Pickleball: Representing the rapidly growing sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong.
• Person Knitting: Celebrating this popular craft and hobby.
• Person Gaming with VR Headset: Reflecting the growing popularity of virtual reality gaming.
• Person Stargazing: Representing astronomy, wonder, and contemplation.

Emoji Modifications and Improvements

Beyond brand new emojis, the 2024 update includes improvements to existing ones:

• Directional options: More emojis will get directional variants, allowing them to face left or right.
• Skin tone combinations: Additional mixed skin tone options for couple and family emojis.
• Accessibility improvements: Enhanced descriptions for screen readers to make emojis more accessible.
• Design consistency: Some existing emojis will be refined for better visual consistency across the emoji set.

When Will We Get These New Emojis?

The emoji release process follows a predictable pattern, but requires patience:

1. Unicode approval (September 2024): The Unicode Consortium will finalize Unicode 16.0, which includes the official approval of new emojis.
2. Vendor designs (Late 2024): Companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Twitter will create their own visual interpretations of each emoji.
3. Operating system updates (Late 2024 to Early 2025): The new emojis will roll out through operating system updates:
   • iOS users will likely see them in iOS 18.1 or 18.2
   • Android users will get them in Android 16 or through Google's emoji updates
   • Windows users will receive them in a Windows 11 update
4. Application support: Individual apps will need to update their software to support the new emojis, which may happen at different times.

The Emoji Proposal Process

Have you ever wondered how new emojis are selected? The process is more rigorous than you might think:

1. Proposal submission: Anyone can submit a proposal to the Unicode Consortium, but it must include detailed justification, expected usage data, and other supporting information.
2. Emoji Subcommittee review: A dedicated subcommittee evaluates proposals based on multiple factors including:
   • Compatibility with existing emojis
   • Expected usage frequency
   • Distinctiveness
   • Completeness (filling a gap in the existing set)
   • Frequency of requests
3. Public review: Shortlisted emoji candidates undergo public review.
4. Final approval: The Unicode Technical Committee gives final approval for inclusion in the next Unicode release.

This process typically takes 12-18 months from proposal to availability on devices, which is why we can preview what's coming in 2024 based on proposals already in the pipeline.

Emojis That Didn't Make the Cut

Not all proposed emojis are approved. Some notable rejections from recent consideration include:

• Crying Tears of Blood: Rejected for being too similar to existing crying emojis.
• Chef's Kiss: Considered too specific a gesture and potentially confusing across cultures.
• Milk Carton: Deemed too similar to existing drink containers.
• Various Mythical Creatures: Many were rejected to maintain balance between realistic and fantasy elements.

Some rejected emojis are revised and resubmitted in later years, sometimes successfully. The jellyfish emoji coming in 2024, for example, was previously rejected twice before finally being approved.

The Future of Emoji

Looking beyond 2024, several trends are shaping the future of emoji:

• Slowing pace of new additions: After years of rapid expansion, the Unicode Consortium is becoming more selective about new additions, focusing on quality over quantity.
• More customization options: Future updates may focus more on combining existing emojis in new ways rather than creating entirely new ones.
• Animated emojis: While not part of the Unicode standard, platforms are increasingly offering animated versions of standard emojis.
• 3D and AR emojis: As augmented reality becomes more mainstream, we may see more integration of emojis into AR experiences.
• AI-generated emojis: Some platforms are experimenting with allowing users to generate custom emojis using AI tools.

Conclusion

The 2024 emoji update continues the evolution of our digital visual language, adding new ways to express ourselves, represent diverse experiences, and communicate across language barriers. While we'll need to wait several months before these new emojis reach our devices, they represent the ongoing effort to make digital communication more expressive, inclusive, and representative of our diverse world.

Whether you're excited about the phoenix, the boba tea, or the pickleball player, the 2024 emoji update offers something for everyone. Keep an eye out for these new additions in your device updates later this year!