Hindu Temple, Auto Rickshaw Among 61 New Emojis Shortlisted for 2019 Release

Unicode Consortium, the organisation that regulates emojis, has shortlisted 179 candidates - 61 characters plus variants - for release in 2019.

Giving a thumbs up to diversity, making up a large chunk of those new emoji are 55 characters to represent couples of different genders and skin tones, The Verge reported on Thursday. Among the new emojis added to the list are Hindu temple, service dog, ringed planet, kneeling person, auto rickshaw, among others. The shortlisted emoji includes representation of a person with hearing impairment as well.

The list of draft candidates will be reviewed and finalised in the next meeting, this coming September, Unicode Consortium said in a blog post.

Additionally, eight "emoji provisional candidates" for 2020 have also been added which includes ninja, military helmet, mammoth, feather, dodo, magic wand, carpentry saw and a screwdriver, it said.