New Diverse And Gender-Inclusive Emojis To Roll Out This Year

Including emojis representing transgender and non-binary pregnancies

Possibly coming soon to a phone near you: new emojis! And more diverse and gender-inclusive ones, at that. This week, Emojipedia released a batch of new emojis up for approval this fall by Unicode Consortium, for the next emoji release (Emoji 14.0); and among them include “consistent gender options for pregnancy and royalty, ‘heart hands,’ and the ability to choose from 15 different handshake combinations.”

“For #WorldEmojiDay which draft emoji candidate are you most looking forward to?” Emojipedia tweeted in time for World Emoji Day on July 17, along with an image showing their 32 potential new emojis.

First up, we have emojis representing transgender and non-binary pregnancies:

“Pregnant Man and Pregnant Person are new, and recognize that pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people,” Emojipedia writes. “These are additions to the existing 🤰 Pregnant Woman emoji.”

Next, we have handshakes in various skin tone combinations:

We also have this face with a peeking eye:

A “hand with index finger and thumb crossed” emoji that, as Emojipedia states, is popular with K-Pop fans:

To possibly join the current prince and princess emojis, a gender-neutral person wearing a crown:

And the melting face (or, 2020 in a nutshell):

According to Emojipedia, the majority of draft emoji candidates do end up included in the final list, which should be released on Sept. 14.

“This list in particular has been worked on for a longer period of time, after Unicode 14.0 was delayed due to COVID-19,” they explain.

The Daily Beast reports that the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit organization that develops, debates and creates new emojis, is still exploring gender-neutral options for the disco-dancing man and the flamenco-dancing woman.

“The above additions will mean that nearly all emojis can have default a gender neutral option, with choice to use a woman or man where relevant. A few exceptions remain, which are being reviewed, as per this Unicode Emoji Subcommittee report from 2020,” Emojipedia says.

The winners will be decided by online voting; and according to Emojipedia, the new, approved emojis could be available for use as early as late this year, with the majority of updates to take place in the first half of 2022. For comparison, the last emoji update was approved in September 2020, arrived on Pixel phones in December and iOS in April 2021.