Due To The Coronavirus, There Will Be No New Emoji In 2021

While it remains unclear how long the world will feel the aftershocks of the Coronavirus pandemic, we know one thing: there will be no new emoji in 2021.

That's because the release of emoji is a year+ process. Typically, emoji are pitched to the Unicode Consortium in the spring, reviewed and approved the following January, and released on iOS and Android in September. Due to the extenuating circumstances of the Coronavirus, the Unicode Consortium has pushed that schedule back.

In a statement, Unicode Consortium president Mark Davis wrote, "Under the current circumstances we've heard that our contributors have a lot on their plates at the moment and decided it was in the best interests of our volunteers and the organizations that depend on the standard to push out our release date."

Emoji planned for release in September of 2020 will not be delayed, however, meaning we will soon see the gender-neutral set of emoji (not to mention the Italian Hand Gesture) on our phones this fall.