David Bridges
The Unicode Consortium has made an exciting announcement that this fall, a new emoji representing what can be considered a Bigfoot emoji will be added to the open Unicode standard. This legendary cryptid, referred to as “Hairy Creature,” will join a delightful assortment of other innovative emoji options in the upcoming Unicode 17.0 release.
While it may seem unusual for such a powerful alliance of tech giants—including Apple, Google, and Microsoft—to mention one of North America’s most renowned semi-mythical beings, the global scope of Unicode necessitates the use of universally recognizable terminology whenever possible. In North America, this creature is known as Bigfoot, but in various regions around the world, it might be recognized as a yowie, yeti, nuk-luk, hibagon, orang pendek, or even an almas.
In addition to “Hairy Creature,” the Unicode 17.0 update will introduce several other engaging emoji options that users can look forward to:
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Trombone
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Treasure Chest
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Distorted Face
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Fight Cloud
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Apple Core
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Orca
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Ballet Dancers
The official release date for Unicode 17.0 is scheduled for September 9, 2025. However, it’s important to note that the new emoji might not be available on Android and iOS immediately after the standard update is rolled out. In the meantime, users may have to rely on creative alternatives such as Genmoji or Emoji Kitchen to express themselves while awaiting the new releases.
Update, July 21, 2025 3:35PM: This article has been revised to include the “Landslide” emoji, which was absent from the Unicode Consortium‘s initial announcement.
Brandon Fletcher
Daniel Mercer
