Forget new emoji, you’ve got enough, mate. The future is flipping the ones you already have to create new meaning and stuff. That’s what emoji creators Unicode proposed yesterday, anyway.
If successfully implemented, it would allow users to flip emoji to face the opposite direction, but only for those that would “benefit from it most.” In other words, you won’t be able to do it for everything. For an idea of what that selection might include, suss the sample image below with the gun, train and runner emoji.
Emojipedia say the feature has been a requested for some time, something that would have prompted the folks at Unicode to consider the change.
“Emoji with glyphs that face to the right or left may face either direction, according to vendor preference,” the Unicode proposal reads. “However, that can cause a definite change in meaning when exchanging text across platforms. The following ZWJ mechanism can be used to pick an explicit direction.”
The final decision on whether the feature will be implemented, along with a new list of emoji, will take place in January next year during the Unicode Technical Meeting. If you were hoping to see the frowning piece of shit or a smily face with “OK” for eyes, bad luck, they’ve already vetoed those ones.
If published, the new additions should roll out in the second half of 2018.
