Android is getting a new set of emojis in an update set to first roll out next week to Nexus phones. Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s SVP of Android and Chrome OS, announced the news on Twitter; stating that the emojis will come as part of an updated system image that will also bring a new keyboard and font to the Android operating system.
Look! New emoji coming to #Nexus next week. Fonts and tech details shared with OEMs to include in their updates too. pic.twitter.com/GwvKw2d67p
— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) December 3, 2015
The emojis shown off include a lion, a crab, and a unicorn (which if you’re Scottish, is great news!), suggesting that the Android update will support the characters in Unicode 8.0; that’s the Unicode expansion that featured important additions such as the burrito. Android fell behind, as iOS gained burrito boasting prowess in October with iOS 9.1, making Android’s existence all the more difficult to swallow. However it seems like Android finally managed to hitch the horse to the bandwagon.
Unicode 8.0 also brought emoji with diverse skin tones, though Apple released those separately ahead of the taco update — it remains to be seen how Google will handle the rollout.
Although the update will hit Nexus phones first, Lockheimer says that Google has passed the relevant information onto third-party OEMs, so with any luck we’ll see tacos and diversity across the broader Android ecosystem sooner rather than later.
