New Couple Emojis Come To WhatsApp

Keith Broni

Dec 2, 2021 • 3 min read

WhatsApp has released an update for their Android messaging app, bringing over 200 emoji combinations from late 2019 and late 2020 to the platform's emoji set for the first time.

Above: the 242 new emojis included in WhatsApp 2.21.23.23. Image: WhatsApp designs / Emojipedia composite.

This update has come just a couple of months after the platform's last emoji update, WhatsApp 2.21.16.20, which introduced emojis such as 😵‍💫 Face with Spiral Eyes, ❤️‍🔥 Heart on Fire, and 🧔‍♀️ Woman: Beard to the platform.

Above: all of the new emojis featured in September 2021's WhatsApp 2.21.16.20 update. Image: WhatsApp designs / Emojipedia composite.

The 11 emojis introduced in WhatsApp 2.21.16.20 were from late 2020's Emoji 13.1 recommendations^[1].

Meanwhile, 200 of the new emojis in the recent 2.21.23.23 update are also from the Emoji 13.1 list, namely different skin tone combination options for the various 💑 Couple with Heart and 💏 Kiss emojis.

Above: a selection of the new 💑 Couple with Heart variants with a choice of skin tones for either person.

Above: versions of the 💏 Kiss included two people with different skin tones.

Additionally, this update contains 12 additional versions of the 💑 Couple with Heart and 💏 Kiss emojis that are not technically recommended for general interchange (RGI).

These emoji sequences do, however, share the same designs as 💑 Couple with Heart and 💏 Kiss that are RGI.

For example, the sequence constructed via 🧑 Person, ❤️ Red Heart, 💋 Kiss Mark, and a second 🧑 Person emoji with several zero width joiners - 🧑‍❤️‍💋‍🧑 Kiss: Person, Person - shares the same design as the single codepoint 💏 Kiss emoji.

The remaining 30 new emojis included in this update are drawn from late 2019's Emoji 12.1, with each being a skin tone combination for the various 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People Holding Hands emojis.

Above: a selection of 30 new skin tone combinations of 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People Holding Hands introduced in WhatsApp 2.21.23.23.

Partial support for the Emoji 12.1 recommendations was first introduced in September 2020's WhatsApp's 2.20.198.15 update, which included 138 of the 168 new emoji sequences recommended in Emoji 12.1.

Each of the new emojis introduced in WhatsApp's 2.20.198.15 display a single person emoji with a gender neutral appearance.

Above: the 138 emojis first introduces in WhatsApp's 2.20.198.15 back in 2020.

🆙 Changed

💏 Kiss now displays two non-gender-specific individuals instead of a 👨 Man and a 👩 Woman.

💑 Couple with Heart now displays two non-gender-specific people instead of a 👨 Man and a 👩 Woman.

The women in 👩‍❤️‍👩 Couple with Heart: Woman, Woman have swapped places.

📶 Release

These new couple emojis are now available for Android users when the app updates to WhatsApp 2.21.23.23 or above.

Users of iOS devices will continue to see native Apple emoji designs which are provided by the operating system.

📖 Read More

As of the WhatsApp 2.21.23.23 update, the last outstanding Emoji 13.1 recommendation yet to be supported on WhatsApp is the 🧔‍♂️ Man: Beard emoji and its five skin tone modifier options. This is an odd exclusion on the part of WhatsApp. Their 2.21.16.20 update modified the design of the 🧔 Person: Beard to be more gender-inclusive, yet the previous design was not implemented for the 🧔‍♂️ Man: Beard emoji sequence recommended in Emoji 13.1. This is expected to be rectified in a future WhatsApp for Android update. ↩︎