The emoji list for 2020 is now complete, with 117 emojis making the final cut for release this year.
Additions include Bubble Tea, Smiling Face With Tear, bottle-feeding parents and the Transgender Flag.[1] Emojipedia is today releasing sample images for each of the new emojis approved as part of this list.
Above: New emojis approved for release in 2020. Video: Emojipedia.
Welcome additions include an emoji showing People Hugging which shows a greater sense of empathy than the previous excited-looking 🤗 Hugging Face, a pinched finger gesture which is commonly referred to simply as "Italian Hand Gesture".
Variations of existing emojis now approved for 2020 include a woman or gender-inclusive person in a tuxedo, as well as a gender-neutral person or a man in a veil (both were changes proposed by Google). These, along with other approved emojis, will be coming to phones later this year.[2]
Also included in this update is a gender-inclusive alternative to 🎅 Santa Claus and 🤶 Mrs. Claus, named Mx. Claus. This addition is part of an ongoing effort to make more consistent set of gender options across the board, and expands upon the 138 new gender-neutral emojis added in late 2019 as part of Emoji 12.1.[3]
Above: New emoji options available in 2020: Woman in Tuxedo, Mx Claus, Man with Veil.
Announced today by the Unicode Consortium, the 117 new emojis form part of Emoji 13.0 and will come to most platforms in the second half of 2020.[4] As part of today's announcement, Unicode has posted data files and charts for Emoji 13.0, with the sample images shown in the charts for vendor guidance.
Above: Original images from Emojipedia showing how the new emojis may look.
As with all new emoji releases, the appearance of each emoji varies by platform. Images shown on this page (and tweet thread) are original designs created by Emojipedia in a glossy style to show one potential way these may look when implemented on major platforms such as iOS, Android, WhatsApp, or Twitter.
📋 2020 Emoji List
Listed below are are each of the new emojis approved in Emoji 13.0, minus any skin tone variations.
📝 Now approved: 117 new emojis for 2020 #Emoji2020 https://t.co/SojQuXZvv6 pic.twitter.com/sHp7GDsSal
— Emojipedia 📙 (@Emojipedia) January 29, 2020
| Image | Emoji |
|---|---|
 |
Smiling Face with Tear |
 |
Disguised Face |
 |
Pinched Fingers With Skin Tones |
 |
Anatomical Heart |
 |
Lungs |
 |
Ninja With Skin Tones |
 |
Person in Tuxedo With Skin Tones |
 |
Woman in Tuxedo With Skin Tones |
 |
Person with Veil With Skin Tones |
 |
Man with Veil With Skin Tones |
 |
Woman Feeding Baby With Skin Tones |
 |
Person Feeding Baby With Skin Tones |
 |
Man Feeding Baby With Skin Tones |
 |
Mx Claus With Skin Tones |
 |
People Hugging |
 |
Black Cat |
 |
Bison |
 |
Mammoth |
 |
Beaver |
 |
Polar Bear |
 |
Dodo |
 |
Feather |
 |
Seal |
 |
Beetle |
 |
Cockroach |
 |
Fly |
 |
Worm |
 |
Potted Plant |
 |
Blueberries |
 |
Olive |
 |
Bell Pepper |
 |
Flatbread |
 |
Tamale |
 |
Fondue |
 |
Teapot |
 |
Bubble Tea |
 |
Rock |
 |
Wood |
 |
Hut |
 |
Pickup Truck |
 |
Roller Skate |
 |
Magic Wand |
 |
Piñata |
 |
Nesting Dolls |
 |
Sewing Needle |
 |
Knot |
 |
Thong Sandal |
 |
Military Helmet |
 |
Accordion |
 |
Long Drum |
 |
Coin |
 |
Boomerang |
 |
Carpentry Saw |
 |
Screwdriver |
 |
Hook |
 |
Ladder |
 |
Elevator |
 |
Mirror |
 |
Window |
 |
Plunger |
 |
Mouse Trap |
 |
Bucket |
 |
Toothbrush |
 |
Headstone |
 |
Placard |
 |
Transgender Symbol |
 |
Transgender Flag |
For the purposes of this list, Person in Tuxedo and Person with Veil are shown as new, even though these are existing code points. Not listed: new sequences for Man in Tuxedo and Woman with Veil which are expected to have the same appearance as the current implementations.
Above: Key additions in the emoji set each year. Images: Apple 2014–2018; Emojipedia 2019–2020.
Vendor Preview
For most users, these new emojis will come to devices in software updates throughout 2020.
A number of designs from Google are shown below which are subject to change prior to final release, but give a reasonable indication of how these might look on Android. In past years, Apple has waited until the second half of the year to preview new emojis, often doing this on World Emoji Day in July.
Prior to today's announcement, Twitter already supported Woman in Tuxedo, Transgender Flag and Transgender Symbol emojis, and these are also shown below.
Above: Emojis coming to Android and Twitter in 2020. Images: Google (via Unicode chart / Twitter (via Twemoji).
Release
Unicode announced the publishing of Emoji 13.0 data files on 2020-01-29 (California / US Pacific Time), with the announcement being made ahead of the rest of the Unicode 13.0 release to give vendors appropriate time to work on their emoji release for the year.
Expect to see these new emojis on major operating systems in the second half of 2020.
These tend to come to Android in beta around August, and to iOS and macOS in October or November.
Above: New in 2020: Ninja, Bubble Tea, Pinched Fingers, Accordion, Coin, Person Feeding Baby, Smiling Face With Tear, Teapot, People Hugging. Images: Emojipedia Sample Image Collection.
Resources
- 2020 Emoji List (Emoji 13.0)
- Emojipedia Sample Images for 2020 (Images)
- Emojipedia Sample Images for 2020 (Video)
- Unicode Emoji 13.0 Data Files
- Updated Unicode Emoji Charts
Be First 🥇
Sign up for our free, monthly email so you're first to know the latest emoji news. Emoji Wrap is published monthly, and we won't use your email for anything else.
👇 Your email address 👇
Transgender Flag was drafted as a 2020 emoji candidate in 2019, and some vendors including WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter added this ahead of approval by Unicode. The result has been a flag that works on some platforms, but not others. ↩︎
This has been achieved by reclassifying the previous emojis for Man in Tuxedo and Bride with Veil as gender-neutral. Future software updates will show these with an ambiguous gender, and rename them to Person in Tuxedo and Person with Veil respectively. New sequences in Emoji 13.0 permit a choice of a woman or man for either the tuxedo or veil-wearing emojis. During this transition, current platforms will continue to show the older, gendered appearance for these emojis, until the new gendered sequences are implemented on iOS, Android, and other apps later in 2020. ↩︎
First pushed by Google in early 2019, having three choices for human emojis (person - with no gender specified, or options for a woman or man) avoids issues where some emojis have a woman, man, or an ambiguous gender. Many of these decisions are a relic of much earlier emoji releases, such as the gender pair of a bride being a man in tuxedo, which previously prevented there from being the option of a woman wearing the same clothing. ↩︎
Unicode lists this update as 62 emoji additions, with 55 gender or skin tone variations. This is technically correct per the Unicode emoji specifications, however it does mean that Mx Claus is counted in the 'new' section, while Man with Veil is counted as merely a gender variation. Of the 117 emojis, one is considered an emoji component, meaning it is used as part of a sequence, but will not necessarily be shown on emoji keyboards. ↩︎