For those whose heads are always in the clouds, there’s now an emoji to match your mood. The Unicode Consortium — the organization responsible for setting international emoji standards — has officially approved Unicode 2021 emoji update, expanding our digital language with fresh expressions of emotion and identity.

Among the most anticipated additions are ‘Face Exhaling,’ ‘Face in Clouds,’ ‘Mending Heart,’ ‘Heart on Fire,’ and even emojis of women with beards — marking a step toward broader inclusivity and representation.

While the update might seem large, 210 of the 217 new characters are skin tone variants, offering more combinations for multi-person emojis. This smaller update, known as Emoji 13.1, builds on the previous Emoji 13.0 set from 2020.

The larger Emoji 14.0 rollout, initially planned for 2021, was postponed due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the good news is that many users will still experience plenty of newness — since most devices have yet to fully implement the 2020 update. Only a few Samsung and Google smartphones have received it so far, with iPhones expected to catch up later in the year.

When these new symbols arrive, users can expect a richer and more expressive digital vocabulary — one that continues to evolve with our changing ways of communication.

Written by Otávio Santiago, a designer crafting visual systems that move between the tactile and the digital. His work combines motion, branding, and 3D exploration with a poetic sense of structure.