Emoji news is almost always a pretty big deal for a lot of people and the upcoming official 2018 emoji list is one of the more anticipated ones. Well, we still have a few months to wait for that, but for now, the beta version for next year’s release has been announced. The possible ones that can make the final cut include a cupcake, skateboard, redheads, teddy bear, mango, etc. But the thing that most people are excited about is the possibility of reversing the directions of specific emojis.
Since this isn’t a final list, they are called emoji candidates and they might not make it to the actual final list. But if you’ve been dreaming of being able to send a mango emoji because it’s your favorite fruit or a cupcake to indicate what dessert you’d like for the upcoming party (and a party face emoji to add to that), then you’re one step closer as they have been shortlisted and are now available for the beta version, available now for testing for developers.
But the thing that most are probably excited about is that the update that Unicode will release for next year might bring a “mechanism for providing emoji direction.” Basically what it means is that for the glyphs that are pointing to a specific direction, the “vendor” will be able to choose a direction for the emoji, which as most people know, can actually change the meaning of your statement. It’s still in an early stage for now though, so don’t get your hopes up just yet.
The final decisions for what emojis will be part of the new Unicode release will happen next month at their technical meeting. Then we can expect details to be published by end of Q1 of 2018 and the release to major platforms will be in the second half of 2018.
SOURCES: Emojipedia, Unicode
