New Emojis 2024: The Complete List of Every EmojiEmoji
A Japanese word (絵文字) meaning 'picture character' — small graphical symbols used in digital communication to express ideas, emotions, and objects. Added This Year
Every year, the Unicode ConsortiumUnicode Consortium
The non-profit organization that develops and maintains the Unicode Standard, including the process for adding new emoji. releases new emoji specifications, and platform makers like Apple, Google, and Samsung implement them in their operating system updates. 2024 brought two releases: Emoji 15.1 (approved in late 2023, rolled out throughout 2024) and the draft/approval of Emoji 16.0.
This complete guide covers every new emoji that became widely available in 2024, what each one means, and how people are already using them.
Emoji 15.1: The "Directional People" Update
Emoji 15.1 was approved by UnicodeUnicode
Universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique number to every character across all writing systems and symbol sets, including emoji. in September 2023 and began rolling out across platforms in 2024. Its headline feature was direction-facing variants of existing people emojis, plus a handful of brand-new additions.
New Faces and People
🙂↕️ Head Shaking Vertically — A face nodding up and down — the "yes" head shake. This motion-suggesting emoji arrived as an animated or contextually implied gesture.
🙂↔️ Head Shaking Horizontally — A face shaking side to side — the "no" head shake. Together, these two are perfect for quick yes/no responses.
🫨 Shaking Face — A face vibrating with shock or alarm. Can represent being startled, overwhelmed, or literally shaking with intensity. Instantly became popular for expressing shock: "That announcement had me 🫨"
Direction-Facing People Variants
Emoji 15.1's biggest addition was direction-facing variants for dozens of existing people emojis. Previously, emojis like the person running 🏃 only faced one direction. Now there are left-facing and right-facing variants.
This update affected: - Running figures: 🏃➡️ Person Running Facing Right - Walking figures: 🚶➡️ Person Walking Facing Right - Kneeling, standing, wheelchair users, and many more
These directional variants matter for storytelling, direction-matching in messages, and accessibility (sign language interpreters in particular use direction-facing to convey meaning).
Emoji 16.0: New Additions for 2024
Emoji 16.0 was approved in September 2024, with platforms beginning to roll out support in late 2024 and into 2025. Here are the notable new emojis:
New Animals
🐦🔥 Phoenix — The mythical phoenix, a bird of fire and rebirth. Instantly became one of the most iconic new emojis. The phoenix represents renewal, rising from the ashes, and triumph over adversity. "Just went through the hardest six months of my life but I'm back 🐦🔥"
🫎 Moose — A large North American moose with impressive antlers. Used for Canadian content, wildlife appreciation, and wilderness themes.
🪿 Goose — A goose — and immediately associated with the viral "Untitled Goose Game" and the internet's obsession with aggressive geese. "Chaos agent entering the building 🪿"
🐦 Generic Bird — The existing bird emoji has been supplemented by the phoenix.
New Food and Drink
🍋🟩 Lime — A green lime emoji, finally separate from the existing 🍋 lemon. Cocktail enthusiasts, Mexican food content, and Key lime pie fans rejoiced at this long-awaited addition. "Squeezed fresh limes for guac 🍋🟩"
🫚 Jar — An empty jar. Preservation, fermenting, and DIY food projects.
🫛 Pea Pod — Peas in a pod. Fresh vegetables, vegetable gardens, and the idiom "two peas in a pod."
New Objects and Symbols
🪄 Wand — Already added in earlier emoji versions, but updated with additional context.
⛓️💥 Broken Chain — A broken chain, representing freedom, liberation, and release. Immediately adopted by communities discussing freedom from constraints, toxic situations, or oppression.
🏳️⚧️ Transgender Flag — While technically approved earlier, broader platform support came through 2024 updates. The transgender pride flag.
New Face Emojis
😮💨 Face Exhaling — A face letting out a breath. Relief, exhaustion, or blowing out air. "Finally done with finals week 😮💨"
🫠 Melting Face — (Also rolled out via 15.1 for many platforms.) A face melting away. Extreme embarrassment, heat, or the feeling of everything dissolving.
🫥 Dotted Line Face — An almost-invisible face made of dotted lines. Invisibility, feeling unseen, or fading into the background. Used for introverted and "low visibility" moods.
New Hand Gestures
🫷 Leftwards Pushing Hand — A hand pushing left. Refusal, "back off," or pushing something away.
🫸 Rightwards Pushing Hand — A hand pushing right. The same gesture in the opposite direction.
Mixed-Skin-Tone Families
One of the most significant 2024 updates was expanded support for multi-skin-tone family emoji sequences. Platforms including Apple (iOS 17.4) began supporting families where members have different skin tones:
👨🏿👩🏻👧🏽👦🏾 — A family where each member has a distinct skin tone
This was a meaningful step toward representing the reality of interracial and multicultural families in emoji form.
Emoji 16.0 Additional Highlights
🪭 Folding Hand Fan — A traditional folding fan. Asian cultural traditions, flamenco, and elegant gestures.
🪩 Mirror Ball — A disco ball. Already beloved, it represents parties, discos, and dancing. (Note: this was actually added in 15.0 but widely adopted in this period.)
🫏 Donkey — A donkey. Stubbornness, rural working animals, and political symbol (the U.S. Democratic Party's symbol). "That's the most stubborn 🫏 decision I've ever seen"
🪼 Jellyfish — A translucent, floating jellyfish. Ocean life, aquarium content, and the emoji community's love of marine creatures.
🪽 Wing — A single bird wing. Freedom, angels, and flight.
🪬 Hamsa — The hamsa hand, a protective amulet from Middle Eastern and North African cultures. Spiritual protection and good luck.
How to Get the New Emojis
New emojis require system updates to display properly. If you see empty boxes or question marks instead of the new emoji, your device or app may not yet support Emoji 15.1 or 16.0.
iOS: New emojis arrive in iOS updates (iOS 17.4+ for Emoji 15.1 support).
Android: Google Pixel and other Android phones receive emoji updates through system and Google Messages updates.
Samsung: Samsung One UI updates bring new emoji to Galaxy devices, though Samsung's visual style differs from Google's.
Windows: Windows 11 updates add new emojis to the system font (Segoe UI Emoji).
Social Platforms: WhatsApp, Twitter/X, and Facebook often implement new emojis independently, sometimes before or after OS updates.
The Emoji Approval Process
For context: Unicode approves new emojis through a formal proposal process. Anyone can submit a proposal at unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html. The Unicode Emoji SubcommitteeEmoji Subcommittee (ESC)
The Unicode working group responsible for reviewing emoji proposals, setting encoding guidelines, and recommending new emoji for approval. evaluates proposals based on factors like expected usage frequency, distinctiveness, and representation gaps.
Once approved in the Unicode standardUnicode Standard
The complete character encoding system maintained by the Unicode Consortium, defining characters, properties, algorithms, and encoding forms., it typically takes 12-18 months for all major platforms to implement the new emojis visually. This is why some "new" emojis may already be in the standard but not yet visible on all devices.
Most Anticipated New Emojis
Community reaction to the 2024 emoji batch highlighted a few standout favorites:
- 🐦🔥 Phoenix — Immediately beloved for its mythological resonance
- 🍋🟩 Lime — Long-awaited separate lime emoji
- 🫨 Shaking Face — Perfectly expressive for shock
- ⛓️💥 Broken Chain — Powerful symbolism for liberation
- 🙂↔️ Shaking Head No — Finally, a "no" gesture
Explore More on EmojiFYI
- Copy any new emoji instantly with the Emoji Keyboard
- Compare how new emojis look across Apple, Google, and Samsung at /tools/compare/
- Check usage statistics for trending new emojis at /tools/stats/
- Browse emojis by year added at /category/
- Search for any new emoji by name at /search/