Announcing The Unicode® Standard, Version 8.0

<http://unicode.org/announcements/champagne-bottle-vector2.jpg>Version
8.0 of the Unicode Standard is now available. It includes 41 new emoji
characters (including five modifiers for diversity), 5,771 new
ideographs for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, the new Georgian lari
currency symbol, and 86 lowercase Cherokee syllables. It also adds
letters to existing scripts to support Arwi (the Tamil language written
in the Arabic script), the Ik language in Uganda, Kulango in the Côte
d'Ivoire, and other languages of Africa. In total, this version adds
7,716 new characters and six new scripts.

The first version of Unicode Technical Report #51, Unicode Emoji
<http://unicode.org/reports/tr51/> is being released at the same time.
That document describes the new emoji characters
<http://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Standard_Additions_8>. It provides
design guidelines and data for improving emoji interoperability across
platforms, gives background information about emoji symbols, and
describes how they are selected for inclusion in the Unicode Standard.
The data is used to support emoji characters in implementations,
specifying which symbols are commonly displayed as emoji, how the new
skin-tone modifiers work, and how composite emoji can be formed with
joiners. The Unicode website now supplies charts of emoji characters
<http://unicode.org/emoji/charts/index.html>, showing vendor variations
and providing other useful information.

The 41 new emoji in Unicode 8.0 include the following:

Diversity

five emoji modifiers

Faces and Hands

NERD FACE, FACE WITH ROLLING EYES, ROBOT FACE

Food-Related

HOT DOG, TACO, CHEESE WEDGE, POPCORN

Sports

CRICKET BAT AND BALL, VOLLEYBALL, BOW AND ARROW

Animals

UNICORN FACE, LION FACE, CRAB, SCORPION

Religious

MOSQUE, SYNAGOGUE, PRAYER BEADS

(For the full list, including images, see emoji additions for Unicode
8.0 <http://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Standard_Additions_8>.)

Phones and computers often need operating system updates to support new
emoji, which may take some time. It is also now clear which existing
characters, such as the often requested SHOPPING BAGS, can be used as
emoji. Once phones and computers support these characters, people will
be able to see colorful images such as the BOTTLE WITH POPPING CORK above.

Three other important Unicode specifications are updated for Version 8.0:

    * UTS #10, Unicode Collation Algorithm
      <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr10/> --- for sorting Unicode text
    * UTS #39, Unicode Security Mechanisms
      <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr39/> --- for reducing Unicode
      spoofing
    * UTS #46, Unicode IDNA Compatibility Processing
      <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr46/> --- for compatible
      processing of non-ASCII URLs

Some of the changes in Version 8.0 and associated Unicode technical
standards may require modifications in implementations. For more
information, see Unicode 8.0 Migration
<http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode8.0.0/#Migration> and the migration
sections of UTS #10, UTS #39, and UTS #46. For full details on Version
8.0, see Unicode 8.0 <http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode8.0.0/>.

http://blog.unicode.org/2015/06/announcing-unicode-standard-version-80.html

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