“Molten face”, “pregnant person” and 35 other emoji approved for Unicode 14.0

The Unicode Consortium finalized Unicode 14.0, adding a total of 838 new characters to the standard, which dictates how text and other written characters are handled in most software around the world. Specifically for everyday users, Unicode 14.0 includes 37 new emoji characters, including several hand gestures and additions such as “melting face”, “biting lip”, “troll”, “beans”, “pouring liquid”, “pregnant man” and “pregnant person”.

The “pregnant man” and “pregnant person” emoji are important for inclusiveness and representation, as some transgender and non-binary people can be pregnant. The “other keywords” for both emoji suggest possible alternative uses like “bloated” and “full”. But the names of the emoji for both characters were specifically changed from “man / person with bloated belly” to “man / pregnant person” in February in order to be consistent with the name and intended use of the emoji. ” pregnant woman “existing.

The finalized list of emoji is the same as the draft that circulated a few months ago. This list removed a few candidates that may reappear in a future version of the Unicode specification, including “vulture”, “crow”, “little finger up”, “pot”, “chainsaw” and “submarine”. The Unicode Consortium strives to limit the number of new emoji added in each new version of the standard in order to stay “focused on what is useful” and to reduce the amount of work that developers of operating systems and apps must perform to support new emoji every year.

The new emoji are the most relevant addition in any Unicode update for most people, but as usual, Unicode 14 adds support for a wide range of languages, characters, and scripts, including including “support for modern language groups in Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Java, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Philippines, as well as other languages ​​in Africa and North America.”

Most operating systems and apps usually add support for new emoji and Unicode updates a few months after the standards are finalized, so you won’t see them on your phone or PC for at least a few months.