Smartphone emojis are getting a major update in 2019 with a total of 230 new symbols available for expression via mobile, email, and social media communication.
The Unicode Consortium and Emojipedia, the organizations that classify and create emojis, recently shared details about its Emoji 12.0 update. Some highlight emojis include the mechanical arm, a deaf person, people holding hands, a waffle, and ice cube, a ringed planet, and a drop of blood. Many of the gender and skin tone variants of the new emojis bring the characters up to 230.
Many on social media are already having a field day with the new pinched hand emoji, while others consider the drop of blood will be useful for discussions about menstruation. In addition to skin tone variants, many of the emojis featuring couples now have interracial options as well.
When will Emoji 12.0 come to smartphones?
Smartphone users can expect the Emoji 12.0 set to become available with upcoming major software releases later in 2019, according to Unicode. These rollouts will likely begin between September and October, but some users may be able to get them earlier with developer or beta software access.