NEW ORLEANS – From sloths to swimsuits, new emojis will give you plenty of ways to text about things — without texting a word.
A non-profit called the “Unicode Consortium” (made up of representatives from Apple, Google, Facebook and other big tech companies) has revealed the emojis for 2019.
The list includes some random emojis (a yo-yo? a stethoscope? men’s underwear?) but the overall emoji “theme” this year is “inclusivity”– as in race, gender, and disabilities.
For the first time, there’s an emoji for a hearing aid, a wheelchair, a service dog, a prosthetic leg, and a blind person’s cane (yes, yes, Saints fans could have fun with the cane by combining it with the emoji for “referee.”) Texters can also change the color and sex of two people holding hands– a nod to interracial and LGBTQ relationships.
There are also new emojis for food, like: falafel, mate, waffle, and garlic.
But Louisiana cooks will be disappointed by the lack of an essential item. The new emojis include an onion and a stick of butter, but you can’t make a roux without flour.
Maybe next year.