Planet, Robot Arm, Skunk and More Emojis Coming to Unicode Standard

The Unicode Consortium has reached an agreement on the addition of 58 new emojis. Images of a robotic arm, planet, motorized wheelchair, parachute, safety vest and banjo, among others, become part of the standard collection of emojis.

A total of 58 new emojis will be added this year, but including all skin color and gender variants, there are 230 new ones. The Unicode Consortium has posted examples and guidelines of the new emojis on its website. Manufacturers can use this to create their own variants.

The new images can be seen in the v12 overview. In addition to new images, there will also be more color variants of existing emojis, such as a white and a brown heart. New animals also make their appearance as emoji: it concerns the sloth, orangutan, otter, flamingo and the skunk.

Users can get started with the new emojis as manufacturers add them to their operating systems. This usually happens in September or October, reports the Unicode Consortium. That’s the time of year when Apple and Google usually release new mobile operating systems.