New Emojis Approved, Including Lime, Phoenix, Mushroom and Nodding

What do a lime, mushroom, phoenix, nodding heads and a broken chain all have in common? They’re part of the newest emojis approved by Unicode, the global messaging standard. The announcement last week finalizes the list of new emojis approved.

There will be 118 new emojis released in the 15.1 update. Many of the new emojis will be different variations of existing emojis, either in different skin tones or facing different directions. 

The new emojis also include expansions of existing emojis that now face different directions, including: walking people, running people, kneeling people, people using wheelchairs and people using white canes. The new emojis also include four new gender-neutral family units. 

You won’t be able to find these new emojis on your keyboard just yet, though. While version 15.1.0 of the Unicode was approved on Sept. 12 (you can read all of it here), there will be a lag between the approval and its release. Emojipedia estimates that the new emojis could be available by the end of this year or early 2024. 

It’s also likely that each emoji’s appearance will be slightly different depending on whether you have an Apple or Google smartphone.

The last new emoji release included the long-awaited pink heart, a turquoise heart, a jellyfish, a moose, a different shaking head emoji and more.

For more on phones, check out everything announced at Apple’s Wonderlust event, our hands-on expert review of the iPhone 15 and of Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones.