62 new emojis, including smiling face with tear, revealed
Dealing with something bad with a smile on your face? We all know what it feels like, but very soon, you will also be able to express this feeling in chat using a new emoji - "smiley face with a tear". It has just been announced as part of this year's batch of emojis confirmed by the Unicode Consortium. Here are the details.
62 new emojis coming this year
The Consortium, responsible for maintaining the global standard for emojis, recently released the Emoji 13.0 list with 62 new emojis and 55 gender and skin tone variants. This included the "smiling-crying" face, a face with glasses and a mustache, a ninja, two people hugging, a range of animals like squirrel, polar bear cockroach, and objects like Fondue, Teapot, Pickup truck, and Bubble tea.
Multiple expressions with smiley with a tear
The smiling-crying emoji has drawn the most attention as it reflects handling difficult situations for many. Google's Jennifer Daniel describes it as "a visual metaphor for feeling simultaneous appreciation and relief." She added, "This mishmash of goodness with a dash of sadness is experienced...when you think of the past...[or] When you're experiencing the present and not taking good fortune for granted as it comes."
New emojis also focus on inclusiveness, gender equality
That said, it's also worth noting that this year's emojis also focus on inclusiveness and gender quality. First of all, the emojis for the transgender flag and symbols are on the way. Secondly, multiple gender and skin tone options have been introduced for several emojis, including those showing a person in a veil, a person in a tuxedo, and a person feeding a baby.
When will these new emojis be rolled out?
While the new emojis will give people more options to express themselves, it is worth noting that you might have to wait a bit to see them on phones/PCs. The Unicode Consortium says that the emojis will show up around September/October, but some vendors could roll them out earlier. Meanwhile, Google claimed that they would be available "later this year" with Android 11.
