The Unicode Consortium is the body comprising various tech companies and independent consultants that are responsible for managing and maintaining the Emoji symbol framework. Annually and sometimes bi-annually new Emoji characters are added to the mix and it looks like 2021 is no exception.
Notable contributions this year include more diverse handshake options, pregnancy options, a melting face, lip biting, coral, x-rays, bubbles and various others. At this stage, the suggested characters for 2021 have not been finalised but the previewed candidates are rarely altered.
Apple has historically added new emoji characters with an x.x release such as iOS 14.1. Taking into account that iOS 15 is currently in beta, it seems likely that history will repeat itself with the new characters arriving with iOS 15.1.
