Last Updated on February 4, 2022
As if we didn’t have enough of this little pictograms known as emojis, another six dozen of the little characters are about to be unleashed on the world!
If you like emojis, this story will make your day! If you’re like me, not so much.
There are 72 — count ’em: 72!! — on the way to a device near you.
The new designs, approved by a mysterious organization known as the Unicode Consortium, which sounds like the evil headquarters out of a spy novel, include a mix of everything from symbols of bacon to a depiction of rolling on the floor laughing, what you might recognize quicker as “ROFL.”
There are new foods: among the new options will be avocado, kiwi, pancakes, an egg and croissants, just to name a few.
There are new faces, including a clown face, a lying face, a drooling face, a nauseated face and a face palm.
There are new gestures, from the handshake to the selfie to the “Call me” hand.
You’ll have a range of new animal emojis, like the fox, the eagle, the shark and the squid. (Really, now: who needs an emoji of a squid?)
And yes, sports fans, even you will have new selections of interest; sports emojis being released will range from boxing to martial arts to water polo!
For the record, they’re already working on Unicode 10.0, and a variety of new emojis that will come along with that. Current candidates include the fortune cookie, the sled and — believe it or not — a curling stone!
The real question I have is this: who uses emojis to the point that you’d need that many of them? Do people really compose emails and texts full of the little things instead of actual words? And to the unfortunate recipients of said messages actually understand what’s being communicated?
If you’re going to send me a message and you’re planning on filling it with emojis instead of actual sentences, do us both a favor. Just skip it!
Aislinge Kellogg The only one I ever intentionally use is the smiley face. How do you get the pizza slice? Do you select it from an emoji menu or is there some keystroke combination that produces it?
I almost never use them. Once in a super-great once in a while, if I think of it, I might use the pizza sclice icon to hint at dinner, but that’s it. Another seventy-two seems like something way beyond overkill.