A face with bags under its eyes, a paint splatter, and a human fingerprint are among the new emoji coming to smartphones from this autumn.
The new batch – officially called Emoji 16.0 – also includes a root vegetable, a leafless tree, a harp, a shovel and an unusual flag.
Just like the England flag, this new emoji features a white background covered with a red St. George‘s cross.
But the top-left corner (known as a ‘canton’) is shaded red and contains two yellow lions.
So do you know what land it officially represents?
The new emojis should be arriving on devices in the autumn as long as they get officially approved
It’s the flag of Sark, part of the Channel Islands in the English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France.
Even though Sark may seem like a random choice for flag emoji, the island’s geographical neighbours – Jersey and Guernsey – already have their own.
Emojipedia – which is part of the Unicode Consortium, the central bank of all approved emoji – say these eight new emoji are draft candidates.
That means they will have to be officially approved in September before starting to appear on devices from October.
‘We here at Emojipedia have released our traditional sample designs for all the new emoji candidates,’ said Keith Broni, editor in chief of Emojipedia.
‘They are not yet formally approved by Unicode and are therefore subject to change between now and their scheduled approval date of 10 September 2024.’
The inclusion of Flag for Sark is a surprise because, as Unicode Consortium admits, it stopped the inclusion of any new flag emoji back in March 2022.
Even though Sark may seem like a random choice for flag emoji, the island’s geographical neighbours – Jersey and Guernsey – already have their own
Sark is part of the Channel Islands in the English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France
At the time, Emojipedia cited the ‘transient nature’ of many pride flags, and the ‘challenges including some identities while excluding others’.
Broni now says: ‘This policy remains in force, though at the time of this policy’s announcement, Unicode did highlight how further national/regional flags could come into existence.’
Tech giants such as Samsung, Apple and Meta apply stylised versions of the new emoji designs to their own operating systems.
In other words, these emojis will probably look slightly different when they are released to operating systems and apps.
But Emojipedia said it has ‘already been given some insight’ into how these emojis may appear on Android devices.
If you have a Samsung device, you’ll likely get them first – in October – as part of the Korean firm’s One UI update.
Google devices and apps will get them next (starting from October or November), followed by Meta’s WhatsApp (January or February).
Actual vendor designs will vary from those released by major vendors, though Emojipedia has ‘already been given some insight’ into how these emojis may appear on Android devices (pictured)
Assuming all eight of these emojis are approved, Emoji 16.0 will bring the total number of emojis that are widely supported across multiple platforms to 3,790
Apple will release them on its apps from March or April as part of a later update to its upcoming iOS 18 operating system.
Last up will be Meta’s Facebook (including Messenger) from summer next year, followed by Microsoft devices via a Windows 11 update (as late as autumn 2025).
With only eight emoji, this new collection up for approval is the shortest list of emoji draft candidates in history.
The next lowest number of emoji recommendations – 31 – was Emoji 15.0 back in September 2022.
Assuming all eight are approved, Emoji 16.0 will bring the total number of emojis that are widely supported across multiple platforms to 3,790.
‘Pregnant man’ included in emoji list 14.0
Two emoji – ‘pregnant man’ and a gender neutral ‘pregnant person’ – were among those included in the 14.0 list of approved emoji that came to devices in 2021 and 2022.
The pregnant man and pregnant person recognise that ‘pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people’, said Emojipedia, a voting member of the Unicode Consortium.
Men get pregnant in both real life and in fiction, Emojipedia argued, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1994 film ‘Junior’.
‘Pregnant man’ and ‘pregnant person’ emoji could also be used as ‘a tongue-in-cheek way to display a food baby, a very full stomach caused by eating a large meal
Guidelines to use the term ‘pregnant person’ instead of ‘pregnant woman’ – as issued by the British Medical Association in 2017, in an attempt to recognise trans and non-binary people – were at the time called ‘an insult to women’.
Jane Solomon, Emojipedia’s ‘senior emoji lexicographer’, outlined the new emoji in a blog post entitled ‘Why is there a pregnant man emoji?’
‘The new pregnancy options may be used for representation by trans men, non-binary people, or women with short hair – though, of course, use of these emoji is not limited to these groups,’ she said.
‘Men can be pregnant. This applies to the real world (e.g., trans men) and to fictional universes (e.g., Arnold Schwarzenegger in [1994 film] “Junior”.
‘People of any gender can be pregnant too. Now there are emoji to represent this.’
For now, Unicode is keeping the more conventional ‘pregnant woman’ emoji, which has been an emoji since 2016.