New emoji announced for 2020 - including gender-neutral Santa and pinched fingers

From smiley faces to cheeky aubergines, emoji now form a part of many people’s daily conversations online.

Now, the Unicode Consortium has released a full list of all the new emoji coming this year, including some rather hilarious characters.

In a blog about the update, Emojipedia explained: “Announced today by the Unicode Consortium, the 117 new emojis form part of Emoji 13.0 and will come to most platforms in the second half of 2020.”

The new emoji include two new smiley faces - a ‘smiling face with tear’ and a ‘disguised face’ - as well as a several new characters, including a man in a wedding dress, and a Mrs Claus.

Several new animals have been added, including a polar bear, mammoth, bison and seal, while new food items include bubble tea, a green pepper, a cheese fondue pot and an olive.

117 new emoji have been announced for 2020 (emojipedia.org)

Other notable additions include the Transgender Flag and Transgender Symbol, as well as more gender-inclusive variations of existing emoji.

However, there’s one new emoji that’s really captured people’s attention on Twitter- a pinched fingers emoji, referred to as ‘Italian Hand Gesture.’

One user tweeted: “Olives AND pinched fingers? huge progress for maintaining Italian stereotypes.”

Another wrote: “I lived in Italy and Italian people use the pinched finger gesture for EVERYTHING. You know how we do like a face if we’re confused about something? they just do the pinched hand.”

And one joked: “You see pinched fingers. I see someone eating rice. Culture.”

The new emoji will be released later this year.

Three of the new emoji characters (Emojipedia)

The 117 emoji coming in 2020

Smiling Face with Tear

Disguised Face

Pinched Fingers (With Skin Tones)

Anatomical Heart

Lungs

Ninja (With Skin Tones)

Person in Tuxedo (With Skin Tones)

Woman in Tuxedo (With Skin Tones)

Person with Veil (With Skin Tones)

Man with Veil (With Skin Tones)

Woman Feeding Baby (With Skin Tones)

Person Feeding Baby (With Skin Tones)

Man Feeding Baby (With Skin Tones)

Mx Claus (With Skin Tones)

People Hugging

Black Cat

Bison

Mammoth

Beaver

Polar Bear

Dodo

Feather

Seal

Beetle

Cockroach

Fly

Worm

Potted Plant

Blueberries

Olive

Bell Pepper

Flatbread

Tamale

Fondue

Teapot

Bubble Tea

Rock

Wood

Hut

Pickup Truck

Roller Skate

Magic Wand

Piñata

Nesting Dolls

Sewing Needle

Knot

Thong Sandal

Military Helmet

Accordion

Long Drum

Coin

Boomerang

Carpentry Saw

Screwdriver

Hook

Ladder

Elevator

Mirror

Window

Plunger

Mouse Trap

Bucket

Toothbrush

Headstone

Placard

Transgender Symbol

Transgender Flag