Unicode's new emoji refuses to put respect on Bigfoot's name
The Unicode Consortium has announced that it's adding what's essentially a Bigfoot emoji to the open Unicode standard this fall. The famous cryptid will appear as "Hairy Creature" alongside a selection of other fun new emoji options in Unicode 17.0.
It might seem strange that a consortium of companies as powerful as Apple, Google and Microsoft would practically subtweet one of North America's most famous semi-mythological creatures. But the global nature of Unicode makes avoiding region-specific nomenclature preferable whenever possible. To me, that's Bigfoot, plain and simple, but elsewhere in the world it might scan as a yowie, yeti, nuk-luk, hibagon, orang pendekor or an almas.
Besides "Hairy Creature," here's some of the other new emoji that'll be added with Unicode 17.0:
Trombone
Treasure Chest
Distorted Face
Fight Cloud
Apple Core
Orca
Ballet Dancers
Landslide
Unicode 17.0 is slated to be released on September 9, 2025, but these new emoji likely won't be added to Android and iOS until a bit after the standard is updated. You'll just have to make do with what you can create with Genmoji or Emoji Kitchen while you wait.
Update, July 21, 2025 3:35PM: The article was updated to add the "Landslide" emoji that wasn't included in the Unicode Consortium's original announcement post.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/unicodes-new-emoji-refuses-to-put-respect-on-bigfoots-name-184412935.html?src=rss