Emoji are increasingly a bigger deal to me. And I say that non-ironically. I recently sent an octogenarian client an email telling her that her corporate minutes were done and she responded by sending me a text message with a smiling face and heart eyes. That was it.
As text messaging and email have taken over for in-person and voice communications, emoji do fill a role to add context to words. I use them a lot more than I used to.
All that said, the people in charge of Emoji have announced 150+ new emoji and Emogipedia made a cool video showing them off. You can probably expect these in the first major update to iOS 12.
Here are my official awards:
- Favorite overall: Superhero
- Runner-up for favorite: Pirate Flag
- Favorite new animal: Llama
- Favorite new food: Cupcake!
- Best new emoji for use in emergency situation: Toilet Paper
- Social Justice Award: Red Hair
- Most awkwardly familiar: White Hair
- Happiest new Emoji: Partying Face
- Most likely to be misused: Bone