The Brief: A new emoji update for March 2019 will introduce gender inclusive and disability-focused emojis as well as new foods, animals, clothes, and symbols.

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DEEP DIVE

Emoji version 12.0 has been finalized by the Unicode Consortium and there are many reasons to be excited. Not only will 230 new emojis drop on March 5th 2019, bringing the grand total to over 3,000, but the internet is already praising the tremendous increase in diverse representation in the 2019 batch.

Notable new additions include a blood drop, the direct result of a campaign led by a UK women’s rights group to eliminate the stigma surrounding menstruation, people in both motorized and manual wheelchairs, and gender-fluid people.

The full list of new emojis has been compiled by Emojipedia.

INCREASED DIVERSITY

There are actually only 59 distinct emoji types in this release, however, everything that depicts a human comes in five skin tones and three genders (male, female, and third-gender). You’ll note that there are nearly 70 different possible combinations of the “People holding hands” emoji.

Emojipedia

The set of new emojis also addresses people with physical disabilities, covering mechanical limbs, sign language and hearing aids. They’ve even diversified between manual and motorized wheelchairs and included two different versions of service animals.

Twitter users will be excited to see that their metaphorical and literal prayers have been answered. There are several new emojis, including a Hindu Temple, sari, and auto rickshaw, which denote different religions and their cultures.

SUGGESTIVE FINGER PINCH

If you’re familiar with the eggplant emoji, you’re probably going to love the “Finger Pinch” emoji. The emoji can be used to suggest that something is small or to gesture a small amount, which has people across Instagram and Twitter excitedly anticipating the use of the finger pinching as a clapback, specifically to reference the size of a man’s… *ahem* package.

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRAS

Other miscellaneous additions in Emoji 12 include the Yawning Face, perfect for any Monday morning text; various food emojis, most notably, waffles and a stick of butter; and of course, adorable animals like the sloth and skunk.