New iPhone Emoji are Ninja, Tamale, and Boomerang, available from iOS 14

This article is based on an article from the Japanese edition of Engadget and was created using the translation tool Deepl.

On the occasion of World Emoji Day on July 17, Apple has released some of the new emoji that will be introduced in iOS 14.

The new emojis include ninja, bubble tea, boomerang, transgender symbol, anatomical heart, lungs, matryoshka dolls, beaver, dodo, coin, piñata, tamale (Mexican food), and pinched fingers.

It complies with the international Emoji 13.0 standard and is expected to be introduced in iOS 14 this fall.

Ninja is treated like a face in Emoji 13.0. Today's emojis have superheroes, villains, rock stars, zombies, vampires, and even wizards. Because of this, ninja implementation was rather late.

There seems to be a culture where pirates line up when it comes to ninjas, but so far there are no emoji for pirates themselves, even if there are pirate flags and Skull and Bones emoji.

Tamale is one of the pictograms that are not very familiar to Japanese people. It is a Mexican dish called tamal or tamales, and is made by wrapping vegetables and meat ingredients in corn flour dough (masa), wrapping them in corn or banana leaves, and steaming them.

It is also the "tamalli" of Nixtamalization, the alkaline solution treatment that supported Central American civilization by increasing the nutritional value of maize and making it a staple food. I just looked it up on WIkipedia.

In the emoji culture, the Japanese wind chimes 🎐are used as “Jellyfish”, and the tulip nameplate 📛 seems to be “tofu on fire”, so it seems to be used as natto in Japan.

This is a transgender symbol. Considering that the absence of a symbol, not being represented is as good as nothing in that symbolic system, it's rather strange that it hasn't been there before. The Emoji standard has already added "non-gender specific" versions of a number of face and human emojis.

Bubble Tea. A tea with tapioca, pearl, boba and curious pearls. From the color, it looks like tapioca milk tea in the apple emoji.

After the feverish boom in Japan died down, it was quickly weeded out, partly because of the corona crisis, but in its home country of Taiwan and other hot East Asian countries, it has been a staple for a long time. The major chains have been making inroads into overseas markets for a long time, and it seems likely that the noise and enmity of the drink will be forgotten and that it will become a normal drink in Japan as well.

A new culture-dependent and context-dependent hand gesture. Its official name as an Emoji is "Pinched Fingers". In Italy, this hand gesture, especially when moved back and forth with this hand, means "Seriously?" or "What are you talking about?".

Anatomically accurate schematic of the heart. No more inadvertently sending a heart symbol and causing unnecessary misunderstandings.

In a single letter reply to "I'm going for a smoke".

People in the dam construction business.

A boomerang that many people may have noticed after looking for it to get out and then realized it wasn't there. It is a sporting and traditional hunting tool, but it can also be used to encourage self-reflection, as in "You don't say that", "You're talking about yourself", or "If you are guilty of such things, first throw a stone". Or it could work to shorten the number of words in "I say this as a reminder to myself".

It's hard to believe that there was never a "coin" before. There have been a bill, money bag, wallet, bank, card and medal, but not coin. What kind of design you use is going to vary greatly depending on the enterprise, 'The Crazy Ones' is very Apple.

The dodo, an extinct bird species. It is also known for its majestic march composed by the British national composer Elgar.

Traditional Russian folk art, Матрёшка, famous for the music of Kenshi Yonezu.

Piñata. A kusudama used in Mexican celebrations. Thanks to "Viva Piñata", I thought they were basically animal-shaped, but I guess I was wrong.

Why is July 17 World Emoji Day?

As for the anniversary, the admins of Emojipedia, an emoji information website, took the liberty of saying so.

As for why it's July 17 in the first place, it's because Apple's emoji used July 17 for its "calendar". Tracing back to the original, July 17 was the date Apple introduced iCal, the Mac calendar application, in 2002, so July 17 was the emoji in the design of Apple's version.

📅

Depending on the app or platform, the date may be different, or just "12" (month), or no date.

This article is based on an article from the Japanese edition of Engadget and was created using the translation tool Deepl. The Japanese edition of Engadget does not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of this article.