Roshni Nair handpicks her favourite emojis from this year's crop of Unicode 8.0 releases (as also last year's pending 7.0 lot)
With Oxford Dictionaries crowning 'emoji' – specifically, the tears of joy emoji – as the word of the year, it was a given that we'd compile a best emoji list for 2015.
'Tears of joy' may have been the most widely-used of its kind in 2015, but to think Oxford Dictionaries' hat-tip was the only highlight of the year for emojis is doing the others injustice.
When version 8.0 of the Unicode Standard – the coding system indexing worldwide display and exchange of characters and written text – was released on June 17, 37 new emojis made their way into our phones. To be specific, iPhone owners were the first to get them on version iOS 9.1, much to the ire of Android users, who could only access some of them on the likes of WhatsApp. But the release of Android Marshamallow (Android 6.0) will make available many of these, and other emoji.
1. Jazz hands
Jazz hands has a lot of explaining to do. Is he giving you a hug? Doing the 'Hallelujah'? Or saying 'ta-da' and going all Broadway on us?
Confusing minds but winning hearts, jazz hands is turning out to be a much-loved addition to 2015's new emoji set. It's okay if you don't know what the hell he's doing – his versatility is his power.
2. Unicorn
A whimsical emoji for whimsical people living in whimsical times. Lewis Carroll would be proud.
3. Robot
That robot isn't even available on WhatsApp (a repository of many iOS emoji otherwise unavailable on Android), leave alone a default on Android phones, is sacrilegious. What operating system has a robot mascot but no robot emoji?
Complaining aside, its arrival in Unicode 8.0 couldn't have been better timed: think of this as an emoji heralding the sign of the now, a la autonomous humanoids, self-driving cars and drones.
Tip: Also handy for use in conversations where people sound less human and more like broken records.
4. Middle finger
A one-stop solution for naggy Autocorrect's insistence on morphing 'f**k' to 'duck'. No longer will we use ASCII characters and 'fu' to get the message across.
5. Chilli
Finally, a quintessentially-Indian emoji even though it may not be officially so. Tujhko mirchi lagi toh main kya karu?
6. Taco
More food emojis are always welcome. Taco came at a time when Donald Trump was making all those Marcus Antonius-like speeches on building a Great Wall between USA and Mexico. Yeah, well, Hasta Manana, because taco and its cousin burrito have become hot favourites with texting ninjas in America.
7. Peace dove
One assumes peace dove will become a go-to for the Nobel Peace Prize committee, and also for people fed up of flame wars in WhatsApp groups.
8. Kimoji
Yes, Kim Kardashian, the gift that keeps on giving, released her own emoji set on the App Store around a week ago. The pack comprises of all things Kim – her crying face, her pole dancing self, her engagement ring, her derrière, her middle finger... take your pick from over 250 Lil Kims and go bonkers.
9. Champagne bottle
Because virtual confetti + food – champagne = #NewYearfail.
10. Vulcan salute
For Star Trek fans who enjoy trolling Star Wars fans. May you live long and prosper.
11. Shopping bags
Because shopping without any bags to hold all the goodies is the stuff quotidian nightmares are made of.
12. Bed
The zzzzz symbol is a powerhouse unto itself but let's face it, a bed is a bed is a bed. For those who can't be bothered to type the three-letter word.
13. Flirtmoji
Lifestyles Condoms' sexting emojis have been around for some time, but Flirtmoji's 'p***y mini-pack' took the virtual world by storm in October. The startup was already known for its 'booty call' emojis and those spanning sex toys and S&M gear, but its set of 'diverse vaginas' were welcomed by many women. A pity that some icons in this mini-pack were plagiarised from artist Erin Tobey. Nevertheless, Flirtmoji has been a godsend for collective sexting needs.
14. Synagogue and mosque
About time there was some religious diversity in the emoji universe. Move over church, mosque and synagogue are here to stay. Now let's have some monasteries, temples and gurudwaras while we're at it, shall we?
PS: The listing of religious emoji after Flirtmoji is purely coincidental and not intended to hurt religious sentiments.
15. Finland emojis
A country so cool, it became the first to have 'national emojis' – 30 of them set to release soon, of which three (metal headbanger, couple in a sauna and that old workhorse, the Nokia 3310) images have been made public.
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