What you need to know
- In the spirit of World Emoji Day, Google highlighted new emojis and features for YouTube Shorts.
- Users creating Shorts on YouTube will soon pick up "Emoji Kitchen Effects" that they can overlay on top of their video to concoct new expressions.
- Google is also preparing to roll out a set of seven new emojis for Android phones and products.
Emojis have become a part of our daily lives, so Google is bringing them to a new place and preparing us for new additions.
In light of World Emoji Day, Google glossed over a few fun facts about emojis while also sliding in teasers for what's to come for YouTube. The video platform's Shorts are primed to receive a new "Emoji Kitchen Effect" feature for created videos. It seems users can experience a unique game overlayed on their video, picking which emojis they like the most.
Tilting your head left or right will select the emoji, which will combine to form a fantastic new creation (or an abomination). Google states this will roll out for users creating Shorts "in a few weeks."
An additional set of emojis is set to join Google's products under the Unicode 16.0 release. These are the seven expressions set to enter your keyboard: fingerprint, leafless tree, harp, face with bags under eyes, splat, shovel, root vegetable.
The release of these emojis will be quite spread with the post stating Android phones will pick it up "by March 2025." Other Google products should receive it "early" next year with the emojis appearing as a web font by September 2024.
Google then reiterates some present features in its ecosystem, like emoji combos. This new function arrived in June and lets users place two emojis into Messages and see a recommended "combination" of them. Take a disco ball and a set of headphones, and you'll get a glittering, iridescent disco headset. The combo can be texted as a sticker through Gboard.
There's also the ability to alter and set a different skin tone for certain emojis on Android, which rolled out last October.
Last year, Emojipedia showcased the various trends and changes that the world of emojis has experienced. Among them, the post stated that 26% of the posts on Twitter (now X) contained an emoji. That number was up 22% from what was observed in 2013. Last year, the most popular emoji award went to 😂 Face with Tears of Joy, with 🤣Rolling on the Floor Laughing in second and the ❤️ Red Heart in third.
Now, in 2024, Emojipedia held its usual award ceremony and gave the crown to 🙂↔️ head shaking horizontally. Taking second is 🙂↕️ head shaking vertically with 🐦🔥 the phoenix in third.
