Culture

The Next Emoji Update Could Include Face Palm, Avocado, Selfie, And The Shaka Sign

The salsa dance woman might be getting a male partner!

by Steph Harmon 12 October 2015

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Anyone who follows emoji updates as keenly as we do knows the rules by now: each year, the Unicode Consortium accepts nominations for new symbols to be included in the Unicode Standard, for the next Unicode update.

The list of new characters for next year’s Unicode 9.0, which are based for the most part on popular request, are not guaranteed for your next app update — but the fact that they made it this far tends to be a very good sign.

You know what else is a very good sign? This one:

Mock-up via Emojipedia.org

According to Emoji HQ, that right there is the “call me hand” — one of the 67 new symbols that have been accepted for nomination by the Unicode Consortium.

Interestingly, the Emojipedia entry for the symbol specifically distances it from the “sign of the horns” and the “shaka sign” — but I mean come on, just look at it.

#blazeit

The other 66 new emojis include some hetero-normative gender pairs for a bunch of lone soldiers.

Santa Clause gets a Mrs Clause:

Mock-up via Emojipedia.org

Princess gets a Prince:

Mock-up via Emojipedia.org

And, in exciting news for pretty much everyone on earth, red-dress-salsa-dancing-lady finally has someone to play with:

Mock-up via Emojipedia.org

Emojipedia, who are responsible for these mock-ups, claim the latter was inspired by Disco Dancer emoji from Android 4.4, but can I just say:

Also on the list of hopefuls for the next Unicode edition are the long-awaited bacon, pickle, champagne and avocado emojis, accompanied by other food-stuffs: