The Unicode Consortium has finalized drafts for its latest Standard version, adding 838 characters – among them, 37 new emoji.
Last week, the Unicode Consortium finalized new characters for its version 14.0. The new version brings the total recognized characters to 144,697 – an additional 838 characters from the last version, including 37 new emoji characters, and five new scripts in addition to the existing 159.
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Among this year’s selection of 37 final new emoji, there is the Biting Lip, the Troll, the Saluting Face, as well as two heart-related gestures: the Heart Hands and the Hand with Index Finger and Thumb Crossed, (aka finger heart, as the two fingers cross into a shape that resembles the contours of a heart).
The latter is a hand gesture made popular in 2010 within K-Pop circles, but it can also be used to symbolize that something is expensive.
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Also, as part of this release, handshakes between hands of different skin tones are now officially supported.
The latest emoji list creates a more inclusive space for gender options, as it now includes emoji for “pregnant person” and “pregnant man.” A new “person with crown” made it into the new list and it will offer an alternative to the existing “prince” and “princess” emoji.
The Unicode Standard is the foundation for all modern software and communications around the world, including operating systems, browsers, laptops, and smartphones, as well as the Internet and Web.
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According to the Unicode Consortium, major platforms are expected to adopt the new list of emoji into their software next year, between January and August. To find out more, you can browse the complete Unicode 14.0 Emoji list on Emojipedia or visit the Unicode 14.0.0 release notes provided by the Unicode Consortium.