Emoji for pregnant men will be rolled out to phones

Phone users may soon be able to use a pregnant man as an emoji among a host of other new additions that are expected to roll out.

A provisional list of new emojis released by the Unicode Consortium, designed by Emojipedia, also shows gender neutral options such as “pregnant person” and “crowned person” among its shortlist.

The new set of emojis were unveiled ahead of World Emoji Day on July 17.

Approval for the final emoji version won’t happen until September as part of Emoji 14.0. The approved list will then go live towards the end of 2021 and through the first half of 2022.

Other emojis on the shortlist include a tear-holding face, melting face, coral, empty nest and nest with eggs, mirror ball, low battery, x-ray, heavy equals sign, a multicultural handshake and a saluting face.

Emojipedia, the leading site and voting member of the Unicode Consortium, also gave some examples of how people can use emojis.

For example, the coral emoji can be used as an icon to discuss climate change, with the “Hand with index finger and thumb crossed” emoji used as a heart-finger gesture popular with K-Pop fans or as payment request.

The introduction of the pregnant man and pregnant emojis was introduced to recognize that pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people, and that it will exist alongside the current pregnant woman emoji.

“The above additions mean that almost any emojis can have a gender-neutral option by default, with the choice of using female or male as appropriate,” Emojipedia said on its website.

The multiracial handshake should be included in the final list. The handshake emoji has only been the default color yellow on most major platforms.

“It remains to be confirmed which emojis are in the final Emoji 14.0 release. The final version will likely look like this preliminary list, and no new emojis will be added at this point,” Emojipedia added. “But there is still a small possibility of change or deletion before September”

The Unicode standard approves icons and defines the code for their appearance. Manufacturers like Apple then design their own emojis based on the descriptions provided.

Earlier this year, Apple redesigned the “syringe” emoji to remove the two blood droplets from it so people can use it to describe the COVID-19 vaccination.

Emojipedia stated that the syringe was previously the most commonly used for donating blood, but now it has “had a new life” as COVID-19 vaccine emoji.