A harp emoji is one of seven new characters expected to be available for use in late 2024 or early 2025. Unicode Consortium recently added the new harp emoji to the beta version of its Unicode 16.0 emoji catalog. When the beta review period concludes July 2, the Unicode Consortium will officially approve the new characters. Apple, Google, Samsung, and other platforms will then design their own versions of the emoji for device users, based on the proposed designs.
In 2019, Theo Schear of Emojination and Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore co-authored a proposal for the new harp emoji. Lattimore says Schear developed the main part of the proposal, which she endorsed. Schear says, “Several years ago I started playing the harp, and though that didn’t last long, it was then I realized that the emoji keyboard was missing such a special and universal instrument. I had also recently become a fan of Mary [Lattimore]’s music, so I invited her to co-author the proposal.”
Lattimore says she was surprised by how competitive the proposal process is, and how many years it takes before a proposed emoji is approved and available. Schear says, “Patience is the most challenging part of creating emojis. This proposal was submitted in 2019 and is expected to reach our phones in late 2024 or 2025. There are all kinds of deliberations in the Unicode Consortium’s Emoji Subcommittee on issues such as cultural representation, categorical balance, and user demand.”
The harp emoji’s visual design was created by Aphelandra Messer, who was then designing most of the proposed designs at Emojination, an organization which aims to “make emoji approval an inclusive, representative process,” according to its website. Schear has previously co-authored several emoji (including juicebox, beaver, and disco ball emojis) with Jennifer 8. Lee, one of the founders of Emojination.
Read the harp emoji proposal on the Unicode website. Check out our cover interview with Mary Lattimore in the July/August 2020 issue of Harp Column.
