Emojipedia has unveiled a preview of Emoji 15.1 that the Unicode Consortium will be approving this September, showcasing 108 potential new emoji designs that could be added to iOS 17.

Emoji 15.1 designs
Image: Emojipedia

A total of 108 new directional emoji have been introduced, with a significant focus on people emoji featuring multiple skin tones. These new additions expand on the existing person walking, person running, person kneeling, person with white cane, person in manual wheelchair, and person in motorized wheelchair emoji, incorporating orientation directions such as left and right into the mix.

Apple Releases Second iOS 14.5 Beta With Over 217 New Emojis
Apple has also made some changes to some of the existing emojis: the climbing emoji now has a helmet, the syringe emoji is blood-free, and the headphone emoji looks like AirPods Max.

The new emojis, which are based on familiar symbols, offer a range of creative combinations, including a phoenix bird, a lime, a brown mushroom, and a broken chain.

Among the new additions are different variations of head shaking, both vertically and horizontally. Additionally, the update introduces characters with gender-neutral depictions of families.

The Top 10 Most Popular Emoji of 2021 Unveiled
The most frequently used emoji of 2021 was the Tears of Joy emoticon. It accounts for over 5% of all emoji used. The second-ranked emoji is a red heart, followed by a laughing emoji. The top 100 emoji accounted for about 82% of the emoticons used.

However, it's important to note that these designs are not final, and platforms like Apple, Google, and Samsung may make adjustments or choose not to adopt some of the proposed emoji.

Emoji 15.1 is scheduled for release in 2023-2024, depending on the platform. While some emojis are expected to debut in iOS 17, Apple designs its own emojis, so the final versions may differ.