At long last, the bacon emoji is here

By Lulu Chang June 3, 2016

emoji — downloadsource.fr/Flickr

Now that Facebook has finally gotten with the times in terms of diverse emojis, it’s only appropriate that the Unicode Consortium one-ups the social media giant once again. On Thursday, the governing body behind all emojis everywhere announced the acceptance of an impressive 72 new images into its ever-expanding library. Included in the roster, which is to be named Unicode 9.0, will be the visual representation of “ROTFL,” or “Rolling on the Floor Laughing,” the shrug (which will replace the oft-used ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), a clown face, and a number of sick faces.

The latest version of Unicode is set to be released on June 21, and includes a number of interesting choices, like a black heart emoji, and of course, an ode to the Kardashians: a selfie emoji.

If you’re an animal lover, the Consortium has finally honored the gorilla, the fox, deer, bat, rhino, eagle, duck, owl, lizard, shark, shrimp, squid, and butterfly. And for flora lovers, rest assured that even a wilted flower will be included in the updated selection.

Also, in a move that seems to have taken far too long to execute, the Consortium has agreed to the addition of the bacon emoji, though for the vegetarians among us, there will also be a number of pastries. Everything from the pancake to the croissant will be newly represented, along with the cucumber, egg, and peanut.

And for all the times you’ve wanted your friends in Manhattan to have a Manhattan with you, the Unicode Consortium will be releasing a whiskey emoji.

“These candidates were based on proposals received by the Emoji Subcommittee and Unicode members, and selected on the basis of the Emoji Selection Factors in Submitting Emoji Character Proposals,” the organization stressed in its official announcement. “Anyone can file a proposal for a new emoji.” Just check out the guidelines here, and best of luck.

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