2023’s New Emoji Finalists, Ranked

Ah the emoji, the small, cartoonish pictographs that are seemingly able to summarize the entirety of the human condition in just a few character widths. Whether you use them for the meme of it all or to literally express how you’re feeling, emojis have nestled themselves firmly in the lexicon of digital communication, just be careful using that thumbs-up emoji.

Approximately every year, Unicode blesses us with a list of emojis we very well may see on our phone keyboards in the coming months. Today, Emojipedia has published a list of the icons that could be rolling out in 2023 and 2024 and finalists will be announced in September. Here they are, ranked from best to worst:

1. Lime

The lime is the trendiest of all fruits, especially recently, and the fact that we haven’t gotten an emoji to represent the titular citrus is honestly baffling. Lime ranks at the top of the list mainly because of the attention to detail, with tiny pores dappling the surface and a cute

2. Head shaking horizontally

We have a melting face, an eye roll, a salute, and a face with spiral eyes—but no head shaking. For a suite of characters that’s been around for over a decade, you’d think that emojis would be able to convey the nonverbal methods of agreement and disagreement, but thus far they have not. The head-shaking emoji craftily captures the vigorous back-and-forth movement of the act with some wisely placed movement lines. This emoji has been a long time coming and is sorely needed.

3. Head shaking vertically

My opinion on both head-shaking emojis is much the same, except the vertical shaking head’s expression is one that reads more of reluctance, not of enthusiasm, which feels like a missed opportunity.

4. Realistic mushroom

Mushroom was actually ranked higher until I realized there already is a mushroom emoji. That said, what this new mushroom lacks in originality, it makes up for in realism. The only downside to the hyperrealistic mushroom emoji is that it wasn’t released in time for the first season of HBO’s The Last of Us.

Related: The Eggplant Emoji Makes You Less Likable According to New Report

5. Broken chain

Representing a link between two parties that’s been shattered or a literal chain of metal that’s been broken, the broken chain’s dual meaning makes it a great utilitarian addition to the emoji keyboard.

6. Families

There are four different family-based emojis that are included in this set: Two adults and one child, one adult and two children, one adult and one child, and two adults and two children. These emojis are designed to look like androgynous gray silhouettes on a gray backdrop, likely to subvert the issue of seemingly endless family permutations based on race, gender, and sexuality. They’re nifty and sleek, but it would be great if they had a little more customization, which is no small feat.

7. Phoenix

The rising phoenix metaphor that was beaten to death long ago is finally getting an emoji. I appreciate the attention to detail but an emoji for the mythical bird is a ship that’s sailed and doesn’t garner much interest.

8. Humans doing various things in different directions

There are 108 additional emojis that are rehashes of 6 pre-existing offerings but would now let the user choose a direction they’re facing. These emojis are based on: person walking, person running, person kneeling, person with cane, person in manual wheelchair, and person in a motorized wheelchair, but will include various skin tones and directions. For example, if someone wishes to use the person walking emoji, they can choose if they would like that person to be depicted walking to the left or to the right of the screen. Fascinating stuff. While I appreciate the commitment to variety, this feels like a waste of time.

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