In a bit of good news, there will be new emojis in 2021 after all.
The Unicode Consortium, a non-profit that oversees emoji standards and is responsible for new releases, announced the release of more than 200 emojis that will hit cell phones throughout next year in a limited “Emoji 13.1” release — which means even more ways to convey the pain of this year.
Unicode called it a “minor release” to add new emojis before 2022. The consortium announced in April there would be no new emojis until 2022 because of the pandemic.
Among the major additions are (fittingly for this year) a heart with a bandage wrapped around it and a heart on fire — which, depending on the interpretation, could express either heartburn or heartbreak.
The updates could hit your phone anywhere from January to October 2021, with the more complete “Emoji 14.0” package set to drop in 2022.
