💬 The Wrap
Welcome once again, hallowed reader, to the latest edition of the Emoji Wrap - Emojipedia's once in a 🌑 New Moon newsletter... did someone hear howling? 🐺🗯️
As the 🎃 Jack-O-Lantern patch ripens across social media and the 👻 Ghosts start texting back, we've had new emojis emerge from the depths of Google and Microsoft's developer previews, as well as a look into a possible plain pink heart'd future 🔮... hang on, who owns this crystal ball? 🧙
Additionally, amongst a torrent of brightly-shining ✨ Sparkles and a maelstrom of 🚩 Red Flags, a season-suitable anointed one has risen from last month's new emoji list: the new Melting Face has been winning over the 🫀 Anatomical Hearts and 🧠 Brains of the global emoji community... and speaking of... braaaainnns... 🧟
Also hidden behind the eerie creaking 🚪 Doors (read as 🔗 Links) of this edition of the Emoji Wrap are discussions of how emojis are part of our global folklore, what emojis finally manifested upon Windows 11's debut, and what it takes for a smiley emoji to hide... perhaps in the dead of 🌃 Night or within some sinister 🌫️ Fog...
Happy Halloween, one and all! May your 🍬 Candy be sweet and your 🏚️ Haunted Houses free from unwelcome guests... 🧛
✨ New Emojis
💖 Pink Heart Emoji Might Finally Become Reality
It'll still be quite some time before it's finally approved and appearing on devices, but after this week the much-requested plain Pink Heart emoji took a strong first step towards our emoji keyboards.
But isn't there already a pink heart emoji, you ask? Yes and no: all is revealed within.
📰 The Melting Face Emoji Has Already Won Us Over
After making an initial strong impression as the Most Anticipated New Emoji during World Emoji Day, the new Melting Face emoji from this year's Emoji 14.0 recommendations has started melting our collective hearts even before its debut on our emoji keyboards.
Our gloopy new friend has been on the front page of the New York Times and gotten the attention of Stephen Colbert.
🌳 Sometimes I just Want To Disappear...
In her latest blog post, Emoji Subcommittee Chairperson Jennifer Daniel provides a deep-dive into the upcoming Dotted Line Face emoji's origins and potential uses both when used alone and when its metaphoric vanishing act is combined with other emojis.
The co-author of the emoji proposal alongside Jennifer, Professor Neil Cohn, also recently discussed the creation of this emoji as well as the Melting Face emoji which they also co-proposed.
🤳 First Look: Google's Emoji 14.0 Support in Android 12L
During yesterday's Android Developer Summit, Google released a developer preview of Android 12L - a version of Android 12 OS designed for larger devices.
Within this preview was our first look at Google's support for the 2021 emoji list in action, including the Melting Face, Heart Hands, and Mirror Ball.
📰 News
🎃 Spooky Emojis Are Trending
As we once again approach All Hallows' Eve, certain emojis are getting the time to ✨shine✨. Or ✨gLoW eeRIly✨, as the case may be.
Here we map the use of the likes of 🎃 Jack-O-Lantern, 👻 Ghost, and 🧟 Zombie over the last number of years, illustrating exactly how popular these emojis become at this time of year.
🖼️ Fluent Emojis Look Different To How You Last Saw Them
After being previewed ahead of World Emoji Day 2021, and promoted across Microsoft's social channels, the new Fluent emoji designs arrived within a Windows Insider preview build earlier this month.
However, instead of having the expected 3D glossy appearance, the Fluent designs included in this build are 2D and use block colors instead of gradients. Here we explore the Fluent set that debuted, and ponder the eventual release of the 3D versions.
🪟 Windows 11 Emoji Changelog
Windows 11 launched at the start of this month, and despite not including the anticipated Fluent emoji set, the OS upgrade did introduce over 250 new emojis to the platform from 2019's Emoji 12.1 and 2020's Emoji 13.0 lists.
The OS upgrade also redesigned a significant number of existing Segoe Color Emoji designs, greatly expanding Microsoft's gender-neutral emoji options.
It's Not Just You. The Sparkles Emoji is ✨Everywhere✨
While always popular, the ✨ Sparkles emoji has risen to be the third most popular in the world thanks to its versatile applications. Depending on the context, it can be ✨earnest✨, ✨joyous✨, ✨ironic✨, or ✨sarcastic✨.
So you're not imagining things: this emoji is now ✨absolutely everywhere✨ across social platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok.
💭 Interesting
📜🍆 Emojis Are Folklore
Our Senior Emoji Lexicographer Jane Solomon discusses the US Library of Congress's decision to start archiving Emojipedia under, amongst others, the category of Folklore and Mythology. In doing so, she answers the age-old question: why does a site that informs you what the 🍆 Eggplant emoji means belong in a government-funded library?
🚩🚩🚩 Emoji of red flags are all over Twitter. Here's why
They didn't read all the way to the end of the Emoji Wrap newsletter? 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
Yes, the 🚩 Triangular Flag has recently been seized upon across social platforms for its visual depiction of the classic "red flag" idiom. On Twitter, users were peppering performatively problematic tweets with this symbol so much that the emoji received a 455% increase in use.
🤗 Lastly
That does it for our 👻sPoOKy👻 Halloween 2021 edition of the Emoji Wrap! Back into the darkness we go... until next month, anyway! 🦃
If you'd like to keep up-to-date with the latest emoji news as it happens, you can follow Emojipedia on Twitter, as well as the members of our Emojipedia team:
- 🚢 Chief Emoji Officer Jeremy Burge
- 📚 Senior Emoji Lexicographer Jane Solomon
- 🙋♂️ Me, Deputy Emoji Officer Keith Broni