A new wave of emoji is coming — and boba finally makes the list.
There's plenty to celebrate. The Unicode Consortium(opens in a new tab), a non-profit that standardizes languages across digital platforms and devices, on Wednesday announced(opens in a new tab) an upcoming launch of 62 new emoji. Among them are a transgender flag, emoji of 55 gender and skin-tone variants, a polar bear, a teapot, and a ... piñata?
Over the past few years, the Unicode Consortium has been working on(opens in a new tab) integrating more diverse, inclusive emoji — a response to criticisms about how it has been slow(opens in a new tab) to address its lack of diversity(opens in a new tab). This new collection of emoji hints at their continued effort toward making emoji more inclusive, even in the subtle ways in which they represent different cultures.
Boba, which is often associated(opens in a new tab) with Asian American culture, is one way of doing that— as is the transgender flag emoji.
"For trans folk being able to say 'transgender' in emoji and to be out and proud and let our allies visibly support us is a huge deal for our community," Tea Uglow, who helped co-author the proposal for the emoji, said. "We’re really happy to have finally crossed into mainstream culture. It’s been an amazing team effort around the world.”
New emoji typically start(opens in a new tab) rolling onto devices starting September; other platforms release them earlier. Until then, you can think up creative ways to use these new emoji.
