#Roommates, despite previously stating that we would have to wait until 2022 due to the delay surrounding COVID-19—it has now been confirmed that new emojis will instead be dropping next year. Over 200 new emojis are on the way and they are more diverse than ever, including an entire gender-neutral category and hundreds of mixed skin tones.
@CNN reports, Unicode Consortium, the non-profit organization that is responsible for emoji standards and new releases, just announced that more than 200 new emojis will be released throughout 2021 in a limited “Emoji 13.1” drop. The updates are set to be available on smartphones anywhere from January to October 2021, with the more complete “Emoji 14.0” package set to drop in 2022.
Among the major additions include an attempt at creating a gender-neutral person with a beard, rather than just allowing a seemingly male option. The attempted gender-inclusive design offers three variants of the beard: a “person” with a beard, a “woman” with a beard and a “man” with a beard—with the “person” option meant to represent those who identify as being gender-neutral.
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Additionally, the largest part of the emoji update, features 200 out of the 217 new emojis dedicated to skin tone variations. Current options offer only the default “yellow” skin tone for multiple people emojis, but the update will allow other skin tones to be used as an option. This would also allow for the depiction of interracial relationships.
In a note to just how terrible a year 2020 has been, there will also be an new emoji featuring a heart with a bandage wrapped around it and also one with a heart on fire—which is widely considered to represent heartbreak.
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