You could soon be able to change the direction of your emoji
2018 could be the year of changeable emoji directions. This. Is. Huge.
Emojipedia reports that a just-published proposed update to Unicode's emoji documentation features a new recommendation about a "mechanism for providing emoji direction."
"Emoji with glyphs that face to the right or left may face either direction, according to vendor preference," reads a new section of the document. "However, that can cause a definite change in meaning when exchanging text across platforms."
Now that might sound like a load of meaningless jargon. But, essentially it means we'll be able to choose an "explicit direction" for certain emoji. You'll be able to make your runner emoji run from left to right.
Emojipedia editor Jeremy Burge—who's vice-chair of Unicode's Emoji Subcommittee—says "changing emoji directions" was one of the top requests from Emojipedia users this year.
"It’s particularly frustrating for users of left-right languages (like English) trying to brag about travel when the train and car point left on iOS, but the plane points right!" says Burge.
Burge notes that the changing emoji directions is at "a pretty early stage right now."
"Unicode have chosen a way to handle emoji directions but no specific emojis have been called out to support this," he says, adding that this step could happen "any time now."
"In short: it’s certainly possible for 2018, but I wouldn’t count on it!"
Fingers crossed, people!
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
