From smiley faces to cheeky aubergines, emoji now form a staple part of many people’s day to day messages.
Now, more than 200 new emoji have been revealed ahead of their release in 2021.
Emojipedia, who shared previews of the new emoji, explained: “This is a relatively minor update from Unicode, having implemented a new schedule as a result of pushing back Unicode 14.0 due to COVID-19. The majority of additions are for mixed skin tone options.”
The new emoji include three new smileys - a face exhaling, face with spiral eyes and face in the clouds.
Two new hearts have also been added, in the form of a mending heart and a blazing heart on fire.
Emojipedia explained: “Hearts are some of the most popular emojis, with Red Heart consistently in the top 10 emojis used on various platforms.
“Emoji 13.1 doesn't bring about a pink heart so often requested by Emojipedia users, but it does bring two new emotive hearts.”
One of the most unusual new emoji is a woman with a beard, which is being launched as part of Unicode’s goal of standardising the choices for humans in the emoji set.
Meanwhile, mixed race couples will be happy to hear 200 of the new emoji are to permit skin tone options for the ‘Couple with Heart’ and ‘Kiss’ emoji.
Emojipedia said: “This resolves a longstanding issue whereby yellow humans, despite being intended as a neutral colour, are more closely associated with white people, than people with any darker skin tone.”
Unfortunately, it remains unclear when in 2021 the new emoji will be available.
Emojipedia added: “As with all releases, the exact design varies by vendor, with each company such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung responsible for creating its own emoji fonts and graphics.”
