It goes without saying that weāve been getting a lot of questions about coronavirus emoji trends. Our new Deputy Emoji Officer Keith Broni has done the work, and hereās the results. Weāre actively keeping an eye on how things look right now as well, so may follow up in the coming weeks.
Iāve also had a bunch of feedback suggesting emojis for āvirusā instead of microbe, elbow bumping, working from home, and more.
While itās not on me to say whether any proposal submitted for current events couldnāt also be broadly useful in the long-term, itās worth noting that Unicode rarely looks to add something today that might not see much use in a few years time. Campaigns to ārush throughā an emoji donāt really have any way of working, though platforms like Twitter can add temporary little emoji-like pictures after any hashtag, and often does this for sponsored and other public events.
For everyone now working from home, welcome! My personal preference is to work from a cafe, so Iāve instead setup ambient cafe noise out of a speaker alongside listening to music in a single AirPod. Itās the small things šāļø/š¶š§
And if you want to know about Emojipedia itself: we all work remotely from one another already, and while of course we will be hit by a drop in advertising revenue throughout 2020, weāre in a good position to weather the year ahead. In fact, visits to Emojipedia are higher than ever, possibly as a result of so much remote communication and collaboration.
Thanks as always for being an Emoji Wrap subscriber, or an Emojipedia user š
PS: here is some emoji art from subscriber Eric. If youāre doing anything interesting in self iso, feel free to reply to this with details and it might be shared in a future email or on the tweets.
Jeremy Burge
š Interesting
šŖ Is It Time for an Elbow Bump Emoji?
In the time between me speaking to Arielle Pardes at Wired two weeks ago, and now, most people have gone from an elbow bump as fun alternative to handshakes or hugs, to literally no physical contact with others now and a broad requirement to stay at home.
I know a lot of emoji suggestions are mostly for fun or conversation (which is fine, I like fun too!), this is one reason Unicode takes its time with proposals. If an elbow bump proposal were considered this year, it wouldnāt even hit the first phones until mid-2021 at the earliest.
(there is a long-standing possibility of emojis that can flip direction which would permit a left and right šŖ, but at this stage, itās been considered a low priority by Unicode)
š¦ Spread of the Coronavirus Emoji
Lots of findings in here, but two key ones:
The main use of š¦ Microbe on Twitter is now to discuss coronavirus
The most popular emoji in coronavirus-related tweets is: š Face with Tears of Joy - but that might just be because itās always the most popular in any set of tweets.
Keith dug down into what is popular if you offset the usual popularity, and the charts are in this post.
Separately, a new coronavirus page on Emojipedia demonstrates some good tips in emoji form, including
š«š¤¦ Donāt touch your face
š«š¤§š¤² Donāt sneeze into hands
ā š¤§šŖ Do sneeze into your elbow
š§¼šā²2ļøā£0ļøā£ Wash your hands regularly, for at least 20 seconds
ā š¦š Have groceries and other items delivered to your home
š«šš” When using local shops, donāt buy literally everything on the shelves. Leave enough for others š
š» Hands On With Googleās New Emoji Mashups
More combinations that Memoji stickers, fewer than Emoji Mashup Bot, Googleās Emoji Kitchen is creatively done, and really provides some amusing and clever emoji combinations within Gboard.
Yes they send as stickers (images) not āreal emojisā that go within text, but thatās how any kind of non-standard emoji has to be sent. Since publishing, thereās also now a web version if you want to play on the computer, rather than on the phone.
š TikTok āemoji gestureā challenge goes viral during coronavirus lockdown
People were doing this on TikTok before lockdown, but anyway, I should try it sometime as Iām on TikTok now so stay tuned š¤Ŗ and if you add me, come say hey and that you came from Emoji Wrap š
š Emoji Spelling is Peachy
Can I announce this here? I guess so. Jane Solomon who youāll have noticed writing for Emojipedia since 2019, is now our Senior Emoji Lexicographer.
What does that mean? Well, as a lexicographer Jane has considerable experience writing dictionary definitions of words; but in her role at Emojipedia she will be in charge of all new definitions coming to emojis on the site.
Jane replaces John Kelly, who has been looking after lexicography at Emojipedia since 2018.
š The Most Popular New Emojis of 2020
This feels a lifetime ago now, but these are the new emojis approved for 2020 that got the biggest response on Emojipediaās Twitter account. #1 and #2: Pinched Fingers and Transgender Flag.
See the two-handed version of pinched fingers demonstrated excellently by Mayor of Delia (in Italy) Gianfilippo Bancheri in a video to residents last week.
Expect the full Emoji 13.0 list to come to major platforms like iOS and Android in the second half of this year.
š The Chefās Kiss in Emoji Form Will Soon Be a Reality
If youāre like me, the headline of a Chefās Kiss emoji makes me think of something like this sticker pack from Jen Lewis, more than the new pinched fingers emoji coming to phones this year.
š¬ Twitter Reacts to New āItalian Hand Gestureā Emoji
Pinched fingers was certainly the āmediaās pickā for new emoji to write about this year. I suspect like a lot of gestures, it will see decent real-world use as well.
š Emojis, signs and mixed messages
Last link about that one emoji. Is the new emoji gesture āItalian, Arab, Israeli or generally Mediterranean?ā Itās pretty broad, which is a good thing.
Not every emoji needs one universal meaning; just like gestures arenāt universal either.
š©āš¬ Scientists ā„ Their Emojis, But Itās Complicated
I enjoy an emoji review or analysis as much as the next person, but there is a fine line between scientific accuracy of an emoji, and simply being able to convey a broader concept quickly, at small sizes.
Where one doesnāt sacrifice the other, great! But if you canāt tell what an emoji is, it doesnāt matter how accurate it is. I file most of these under entertainment more than necessary changes.
š I used emoji to order groceries
I often get asked about how certain apps do their emoji search, and the truth is that most have their own custom mappings, where they manually tag certain emojis to correspond to various words or fields. Seems the only realistic way to handle this sort of thing, given how broad each actual emoji can be.
š The most popular emoji plates during first year in Queensland revealed
Correct me if Iām wrong, but wasnāt there only a choice of six emoji designs on these plates in the first place? I did enjoy this from the article, written completely straight-bat: āThe emojis are decorations, not part of the number plate, meaning drivers involved in an accident do not need to draw their emoji when exchanging details with fellow a motorist.ā
š¤ Lastly
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