Cucumber, Comet & Co.: Unicode introduces 9 new emojis to combat misunderstandings in chat
A cracked smile and cosmic chaos: in spring 2027, we can look forward to nine new emojis designed to clear up misunderstandings. One of them, however, is more likely to raise a few eyebrows.
In spring 2027, you’ll be able to as you do every year be able to use some new emojis in your chats. Nine new emojis are expected to be included in Emoji Version 18.0. However, these are currently only drafts, which still need to be formally approved by the Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Consortium is the organisation responsible for ensuring that characters can be uniquely encoded and interpreted across different devices and platforms.
In a blog post, Jennifer Daniel, chair of the Emoji Committee at the Unicode Consortium, provides insights into the development of the current emoji set. According to her, the drafts are already at an advanced stage, but they do not yet have official descriptions.
Nine new emojis are set to be added
The smiling face with cracks is intended to symbolise putting on a brave face. You put on a cheerful front, but inside you’re torn. Also new are the self-explanatory lighthouse and the eraser.
Source: Unicode
Two further hand gestures have been added: a thumb pointing left and one pointing right. According to Daniel, they are intended to refer to people, whilst the existing pointing finger (👉) is often used for places or information.
According to Daniel, the fishing net should be understood as an action. You can use it to indicate when you’ve found something or hauled it ashore.
Emojis designed to clear up misunderstandings
Three new emojis have been added – the ‘ «’ gherkin», the ‘ «’ monarch butterfly» and the ‘ «’ meteor» – which may already look familiar to you. They already exist in a similar form as the cucumber (🥒), butterfly (🦋) and comet (☄️). According to the emoji managers at Unicode, these emojis are not displayed in their originally intended form on some platforms.
The new emojis are intended to clearly distinguish between the previously inconsistent representations. Their differences, particularly in terms of intended use, lie so much in the detail that they are likely to be relevant to only a very small number of people.
Source: Unicode
Whilst the cucumber was intended to be a fresh salad cucumber, it was often mistakenly depicted as a gherkin. Depending on the platform, the butterfly is shown in blue as a morpho butterfly or in red as a monarch butterfly. A real problem (warning: irony!) – which is why there is now a separate emoji version of the monarch butterfly.
When is a comet a meteor and when is it an asteroid?
If even the intended use specified by Unicode is based on confusion, the chaos is complete. That is exactly what has happened with the new meteor.
It joins the comet (☄️) and the shooting star (🌠). Depending on the platform, the comet is either correctly depicted with a long, light-blue tail or, as is the case with Samsung and Apple, incorrectly shown as a glowing fireball with flames.
Source: Emojipedia
Daniel writes about the different depictions of the comet, noting that it is a completely different kind of energy depending on whether you make a wish when a comet appears – yes, the light blue comet emoji resembles a shooting star – or whether, as with an asteroid impact, the planet’s destruction is imminent. However: a comet is not a shooting star, and a meteor is not an asteroid (though it often appears as a shooting star). The confusion is complete.
To introduce the meteor emoji – for which there is as yet no official description – Daniel offers the following explanation of the difference between the comet and meteor emojis: «Whilst a comet remains a wish, the meteor is there for your worst existential crises. Use it when your schedule goes completely off the rails, an argument reaches a catastrophic stage, or you simply want to signal cosmic finality». Astronomers are cringing.
Source: Unicode
The official description for the meteor emoji is still missing, but Daniel’s explanation and the reference image suggest an imminent asteroid impact. Perhaps the Unicode Consortium will also correctly label the meteor emoji as an asteroid. That would solve all the problems.
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
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