Pregnant man emojis and multiracial handshake approved for launch | Emojis

A pregnant man, a multiracial handshake, and a face that can’t stand staring are some of the emojis that will hit devices over the next year or so, according to a draft list released by the Unicode Consortium, which endorses the icons. use.

The new emojis, illustrated by Emojipedia to celebrate World Emoji Day on Saturday, almost complement the consortium’s desire to offer male, female and non-sexist versions of all available emoji, as well as a selection of skin tones.

Trans and non-binary pregnancies will now be represented in the emoji set with two new gender options for the “pregnant woman” emoji, while “person with crown” joins “prince” and “princess” for royalty non sexist. The additions, which follow an update similar to the “bearded person” emoji that allowed users to choose between a male and female bearded face, “will mean that almost any emoji can have a gender-neutral option by default, with the choice of using female or male as appropriate, ”said Jeremy Burge, emojis manager at reference site Emojipedia.

A few emojis remain without a gender-neutral option, largely in cases where it’s not clear what an appropriate gender-neutral approach entails. The two dancer emojis, for example, depict a disco dancer and a flamenco dancer: options being discussed include offering identical versions for other genres (allowing men to portray themselves dazzling in a red dress, for example) ; propose alternatives adapted to the genre (with a new flamenco dancer); or, the preferred option, decide on a dance style to offer in a non-sexist version. Emojipedia suggested breakdancing.

Elsewhere, the tentative list contains support for handshakes between two hands with different skin tones, heart-shaped hands, and additional faces, such as “peeking eye”, “holding back tears” and “saluting. “. There are also 20 new icons, including coral, a playground slide, a crutch, an x-ray, and an empty battery.

The Unicode process involves draft icons being opened for comment before being approved for use in September of each year. From there, it’s up to the device makers to decide when to make emojis available to users. Apple, for example, introduced the most recent emoji in a software update in February, adjusting the “syringe” emoji to remove blood to celebrate the Covid vaccine.