Many of the new icons are tied together by the theme of inclusivity, introducing emojis for deaf people, blind people, people in wheelchairs, and those with prosthetic limbs. This year's update will allow users to choose the race and gender of both people when choosing an emoji that features a couple. Unicode first introduced support for skin color in 2015, but users were limited to heterosexual emojis for couples, and could only select couples with the same skin tone.
While there are 59 distinct new emojis, variations for skin tone and gender make for a total of 230 individual images. A March 5th update to Unicode will make the emojis usable online, but each company will choose when to introduce their own versions of the new emojis. Apple typically adds new emojis to their iOS devices with a Fall update.
Here are the new emoji coming online later this year, with images from Emojipedia:
Yawning
Pinching Hand (with skin tones)
Ear with hearing aid (with skin tones)
Deaf man (with skin tones)
Deaf woman (with skin tones)
Mechanical arm
Mechanical leg
Man with probing cane (with skin tones)
Woman with probing cane (with skin tones)
Man in motorized wheelchair (with skin tones)
Woman in motorized wheelchair (with skin tones)
Man in manual wheelchair (with skin tones)
Woman in manual wheelchair (with skin tones)
Man standing (with skin tones)
Woman standing (with skin tones)
Person kneeling (with skin tones)
Woman kneeling (with skin tones)
People holding hands (gender inclusive, with skin tones)
Guide dog
Service dog
Orangutan
Sloth
Otter
Skunk
Flamingo
Garlic
Onion
Waffle
Falafel
Butter
Oyster
Beverage box
Mat
Ice cube
Hindu temple
Manual wheelchair
Motorized wheelchair
Auto Rickshaw
Parachute
Ringed Planet
Diving Mask
Yo-Yo
Kite
Safety vest
Sari
One-piece swimsuit
Briefs
Shorters
Ballet shoes
Bango
Diya lamp
Axe
Probing cane
Drop of blood
Adhesive bandage
Stethoscope
Chair
Razor
White heart
Brown heart
Orange circle
Yellow circle
Green circle
Purple circle
Brown circle
Red square
Orange square
Yellow square
Green square
Blue square
Purple square
Brown square
