The Unicode Consortium introduces 20 new emojis. With some of them it is immediately clear what they are supposed to mean, with others you first have to think about what they stand for or you can interpret them differently. Google has already announced an implementation and will also let emojis dance in the future.
Some users can’t get enough of them, but many emojis get on their nerves. Some will be happy, others may be annoyed that the Unicode Consortium has introduced 20 brand new symbols. According to Google, there are now a total of 3664 emojis with all variants.
With such a high number, one might think that there is hardly anything that cannot be represented in news with symbols. In fact, among the newcomers that can already be admired at Emojipedia, there are also emojis that make you wonder why they are only coming now.
Why, for example, has there been no donkey or black bird before? Or ginger – half of humanity has been cooking with it since before the root became fashionable in Western cuisine. Why has there always been a duck emoji and only now a goose symbol? It’s also strange that the flute didn’t yet have a Unicode symbol, and northerners have so far searched in vain for a moose.
With some emojis you can imagine why they are only now being introduced. Fans have become common even in temperate zones due to global warming and heat waves. The same probably applies to jellyfish, which are increasingly spoiling the beach holiday for tourists.
With the pea pod, one might wonder why such a delicious, everyday vegetable hasn’t been “emojiized” a long time ago. But the question also arises as to how many users know peas in the pod and not frozen or canned.
The hyacinth has earned its place in the Unicode Consortium’s list simply as a popular garden plant. But it is also an enrichment due to its special symbolism. Because according to “Tollwasblumenmachen.de” it is the flower of the sun god Apollo. She stands for peace, affection and beauty, but also for power and pride. In Christian churches, the hyacinth is often found as a symbol of happiness and love.
The fact that the comb has not had a symbol so far may be due to the hair fashion of the past decades. There may also be too few opportunities to include this item in text messages, or bald men have had their hats on the Unicode Consortium for too long.
Maracas rattles may only remind older Germans of 1950s hit films with cultural appropriation, but in South and Central America the instrument is an integral part of traditional music.
Every Internet user worldwide will immediately recognize one of the two new buttons: the WLAN symbol. The other should be rather unknown in our latitudes. It is the Khanda emblem, the symbol of Sikkhism. After all, the religious community that emerged in northern India has up to 27 million members worldwide, so the button was probably overdue.
According to the Unicode Consortium, the single pink heart was the most requested symbol. The heart is already available twice in this color in a double pack – large and small and circling. Also found in the emojis is a single growing pink heart. Since in all cases it is a question of different stages of a budding relationship, everything should be clear with the new symbol.
On the other hand, there is also a sparkling pink heart that only represents admiration. According to Body Soul, the meaning of the new symbol is similar, said to be best suited to showing affection to friends and family. Accordingly, the also new light blue and gray hearts should stand for a casual love/affair or as an expression of sympathy in a bereavement.
The new trembling head is also worthy of interpretation. Keith Broni, Editor-in-Chief of Emojipedia, told the BBC the emoji could be used to represent mental distress. But it also stands for the experience of experiencing an earthquake.
By the way, Broni justifies the goose symbol by wanting to bring the term “stupid goose” into the world of Unicode. That would also be a good reason for the donkey, although in English the mule is more stubborn.
When it comes to the hands that “push” from the left and right, there is a broad consensus on the Internet that they are best suited for a high five (high five). But you can be sure that users will find other uses for it.
Then there is a single white wing. What is the symbol supposed to do? Google answers that in a developer blog post. You can now use it to make pigs fly by combining the two symbols. Like the whistling pig in German, this is an English expression for a completely impossible situation.
In the blog post, Google not only announces that it will soon adopt the new emojis in Android. It also says it already has 200 animotions – animated emojis – ready for developers to use. These include the exploding brain, beating hearts and the laughing poop.
