Google shares final Android 11 emoji, with ‘more authentic’ animals & dark mode-friendly designs

Ahead of World Emoji Day tomorrow, Google is sharing the final Android 11 character designs. We previewed them last month, and the company is now providing an overview of the 117 new emoji.

There are 62 new characters, as well as 55 skin tone and gender variants, coming to Android 11. Google with Emoji 13.0 proposed changes to the Unicode Consortium that advocated for “more empathetic expressions and finding opportunities to bring equity to the keyboard.”

We’ll see some of those efforts released this fall with new additions like slightly smiling face, two people hugging, man in veil, woman in tuxedo, and person feeding baby.

There’s an anatomical heart, while there are more ways to celebrate with a piñata and long drum. Food gains tamale, boba tea, and a teapot.

Meanwhile, Google gave animals a “more authentic look” by working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Victoria Bug Zoo. This joins new ones like bison, beaver, and polar bear. As for the change to the turtle, the company goes into detail:

In addition to creating new emoji, we took a look at some of our favorites! As we rely more and more on digital communications, so much of what makes face-to-face chat easy, is lost. Which is why we’re so happy to bring back some warmth to our little friends again; perhaps a few look a bit familiar. :-) It’s true, The King Has Returned with a glow up, as have a few of his friends. After all, we promised to protect this perfect tortoise with our lives.

The team also “redesigned some of our emoji so they look good in dark-mode for late night texting.” All these new and now final emoji characters are coming “this fall” with the launch of Android 11.

Those on the Android 11 Beta and latest Gboard preview can view and send the new characters by scrolling the main emoji list, but they do not yet appear in keyboard search. Additionally, the final redesigns for existing emoji are not available in Beta 2.

With today’s preview, the quick access emoji bar in Gboard is starting to more widely roll out. This appears above the predicted suggestions strip and provides a shortcut to view the main list.