The Unicode Consortium, the non-profit organization that maintains a common standard system for writing characters on computer systems, has recently presented the first draft of the new emojis that will be released next year. The most interesting news, and which will be talked about more, concerns the possibility of changing the orientation of the emojis compared to the default one used so far. If the proposal is accepted by the members of the consortium, we will then be able to insert the images of the locomotive, of the men walking and running oriented to the right, and no longer with the default orientation to the left as is the case today. The change will affect specific sets of emojis and will still have to be coordinated between the various manufacturers, to avoid compatibility problems. The possibility of reversing the meaning of emojis has been in demand for some time by users, and if confirmed it could be very successful.
The draft also contains a list of new emojis that will be added over the course of the next year. These include a teddy bear, a mango, a cheering face, a swan, a skateboard and a spool of sewing thread. The illustrations below are generic and provided to give the idea to individual producers, who will be able, as always, to create custom emojis, as long as they follow the guidelines provided by the consortium.
Some candidate emojis for next year have already been ruled out. There will therefore be no smilies with the words “OK” or with two question marks instead of eyes, just as there will be no sad emoji in the shape of poop, mirroring the smiling version already available for some time.
The final list of emojis for 2018 will be presented in the first months of next year, and by the second half of 2018 they should then be made available to everyone.
