The recently released December 2020 update and Pixel Feature Drop has brought quite a few features for Pixel phones. The latest one being the addition of 217 new emoji for Pixel phones.
The update not only bumped the security patch level to the latest month, but it also added tons of new features for the Google Pixel phones.
Notably, the Pixel phone got a new HDR filter/effect for the Google Photos app, Extreme Battery Saver mode, Adaptive Sound, Hold for Me feature where the Google Assistant waits for a real person to come on the customer support line instead of making you do it, etc.
Among all these features, Google has also added 217 new emoji for Pixel phones. Probably, this is one of the features that slipped under the radar because of other stuff.
The latest Emoji 13.1 has now gone live for the Pixel phones. Apparently, this is a bit earlier as it was scheduled for a broader release in 2021.
A bunch of users on Reddit have reported the arrival of these emojis on their Pixel phones after installing the December update. However, note that not all the apps support this updated emoji set.
As noted by Android Police, the new couples’ emoji set uses the Gboard’s recently released table-based UI. This shows separate skin tones for each partner, which is nice.
At present, apps like WhatsApp and Google Messages do not support the new emoji set
As already mentioned, not all the apps support the new emoji set. These include WhatsApp Messenger as well as Google’s own Messages app.
Apps that do not support these new emoji set may split them into two variants. For example, the new face in clouds emoji splits into a face without a mouth and fog when used in incompatible apps.
So, you may want to keep an eye on using these new emoji set on such unsupported apps as they may convey a different meaning altogether.
If you have already bagged the latest December 2020 update, then you can try out and send these new emoji, though the recipient may still not be able to see them considering the 2021 emoji update isn’t expected until next year.
One important thing is that, out of the 217 emoji, 200 are various skin tone options for the various mix of couple emojis. It may look unwanted, but it is important for both representation and to acknowledge differences in ourselves and other people.
It is nice to see Unicode paying attention to such granular details. For a complete list of the 217 emoji in the Emoji 13.1 version, you can head here.
