Bigfoot and a Google-inspired mashup headline this early look at next year’s new emojis

With how comical they can look, it’s a bit funny that emojis have become some of the most-used forms of communication for certain conversations. Truly, using emojis to show off our reactions to a ludicrous text message does more to add to the conversation than typing out exactly what we’re doing (as in, why would we text someone that we’re rolling our eyes when we can just show them?). While most emojis look the same, both Android and iOS have their own sets of specific ones, and Android definitely has its fair share of hitters. Each year, Unicode releases a list of upcoming Emojis it adds to its collection, and we’ve gotten confirmation of next year’s newest emojis.

Unicode unveiled through an Emoji Standard & Research Working Group report (sign us up) that the group plans to add eight new emojis to its fold next year (via Emojipedia). Of those eight, Bigfoot will lead the headlines, and its famous pose from the Patterson-Gemlin tape is represented well. A Google-color-inspired treasure chest emoji is also due to be released, as will a comic “fight cloud” symbol, an apple core, and more. An upcoming dancer emoji will support five skin tone modifiers, but it will only be available as a woman. There are many more new variation proposals for already existing emojis, but no completely new ones besides the eight aforementioned.

Emojis are fun

(Source: Emojipedia)

We don’t usually find the act of reading proposal documents fun, but going through an official document that proposes these new emojis for production is as funny as it is ridiculously entertaining. Some of the most-recent additions to our emoji keyboards with Unicode 16.0 are a “face with bags under eyes,” a fingerprint, and a harp. When they came out in September, people could have grabbed them immediately through the Noto Color Emoji Google Fonts page or GitHub, but they had to wait a bit for skin tone variations of the newcomers.

Using emojis adds some spice to everyone’s texting life, but at the same time, it can truly be beneficial as a tool for communicating. Emojis are a universal language, and anyone can understand what a “laughing” face looks like, regardless of where both parties are from. Since Unicode provides the protocol behind practically every form of text you see online, emojis are available almost wherever you can type text. If you use the Emoji Kitchen through Gboard, you can combine two emojis to create a mashup sticker that you can send to your family and friends, furthering its potential usefulness. If your goal is to create ridiculous and creepy combos, you can fulfill that idea, too. Don’t be shocked if people stare at you weirdly, though.