New emoji? Sweet as. 
Last year we got a bunch of brilliant new emoji on iOS and Android, as part of the Unicode 8.0 spec. Now the first images of new emoji from Unicode 9.0 have been released, including 74 new emoji “based on popular request, gender-matching pairs, and compatibility with emoticons in existing platforms.”
There are a raft of new animals, including cute fox, shark and owl emoticons. Food also got quite a few new additions, including bacon, a paella dish, a baguette, a salad and a potato (which’ll be great for classifying the camera used for most online videos).
Elsewhere, sports were recognised with plenty of new additions, including shooting, a hockey net, hand ball, water polo, boxing and martial arts. There are even medals to be won, from bronze to silver and gold, just in time for the Olympics. The big stinker here is ‘modern pentathlon’, which shows a bunch of tiny people doing tiny things — a long way from the single expressive face that typified original emoji.
There are some great expressions though, including a shrug, a face palm and a pair of bro fists (in opposite directions for easy combination, natch). There’s also a surprising array of sickly emoji, a clown and even an arm taking a selfie.
Here’s the full field of mockups, courtesy of emojipedia.
These new emoji should be finalised later this year, then added to platforms like Android and iOS before the year is up.
Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below!