Crying face emoji: Coronavirus forces postponement of new emojis

Even as millions more people around the world are forced to rely on emojis for communication from their temporary office at home, the Unicode Consortium responsible for emoji development has been forced to delay new emojis until 2021. — dpa

World Emoji Day might be in July, but March is traditionally the real big month for emojis. That's because every year around this time, the powers-that-be reveal the new emojis to appear on our phones.

This year, however, the coronavirus has other plans.

New emojis might be needed now more than ever, with millions around the world using them to chat from social isolation, and yet the Unicode Consortium responsible for their development has been forced to delay new emojis until 2021.

"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 organisations that depend on the standard to push out our release date," said Mark Davis, President of the Consortium.

For smartphone users, this probably means no new emojis at all next year, as it usually takes several months before emojis can be incorporated into all operating systems. In practice, this means no new emojis before 2022.

Angry face emoji. — dpa