Once a year, Unicode drops its annual update: thousands of new characters, new scripts, new symbols, and of course… new emoji. Today marks the release of Unicode 17.0, adding 4,803 characters (bringing the grand total to 159,801!) including four new scripts, many new characters and symbols, and a handful of emoji. You can use download Noto Emoji today and embed on your website but they’re not quite ready to keyboard smash (it will take some time before many of these reach our devices) let’s take a moment to bask in the glow of …
Hairy Creature
Hairy creature is one of those rare emoji that feels both universal and oddly specific. From Yowie to Yeren, Mapinguari to Almasty, nearly every culture has a story about an elusive, shaggy being. It works as a stand-in for folklore, outsider status, or for those of us who are not a fan of shaving — hairy creature is the stuff of legends.
Distorted Face
A familiar face for those of you who use Google’s Emoji Kitchen. Distorted faces show up everywhere from ancient masks to manga panels and face filters. This emoji captures discomfort, cringe, and awkward humor AlL In A singLE gLancE.
Trombone
You hear it as soon as you see it. “Womp-womp-wooooomp” has entered the chat. It’s part jazz band pride, part wet blanket, part ska pants.
Orca
The orca is an icon. Revered in Indigenous cultures and beloved in pop culture. As apex predators they carry the weight of power, their complex social lives and hunting strategies make them a symbol of intelligence, and their vulnerability to threats like pollution make them a powerful symbol for so much more.
Treasure Chest
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