What are the new emojis for 2019 and how did the period emoji come about?

FROM a waffle to a drop of blood and inter-racial couples - new emojis are set to be launched in 2019.

With 59 distinct new emoji types on their way and around 230 new variants, we take a closer look at the most talked about ones before they’ve even been released.

What are the new emojis for 2019?

If you love an emoji these are really going to fun to add into your conversations.

The new set focuses on diversity and accessibility including gender neutral couples holding hands, mixed race couples, guide dogs, manual and motorised wheelchairs, and deaf and blind individuals.

People worldwide will soon be able to create a “holding hands” emoji to reflect their own relationship dynamic, including selecting the skin colour and gender identity of each individual in the relationship.

Other options include emojis showing a hearing aid, prosthetic limbs, sign language and a cane.

Among the new animal emojis will be an orangutan, a flamingo, an otter, a sloth and oysters.

A waffle, falafel, yawning face, white heart, sari, rickshaw and a contentious one-piece bathing suit also made the cut.

This is the sixth major emoji update since 2014, taking the number of emojis available up to 3,053.

Which 2019 emojis have already made the news?

There are two new emojis which have us all talking even before their release – the drop of blood and the pinching emojis.

The new pinching emoji shows a thumb and pointer finger with a small distance between them which has already been interpreted as a hand signal for "small."

There is much talk of this emoji joining the peach and aubergine on the naughty list, with girls across the world saying it will most likely be used in retaliation of unsolicited manhood pictures.

The pinching hand comes in a variety of skin tones and is set to dominate WhatsApp and Tinder convos in the near future.

The other new emoji getting tongues wagging is the new blood drop emoji.

In a world where emojis are used to represent almost anything, many are saying the new blood drop emoji represents menstruation in a significant victory for women everywhere.

How did the period emoji come about?

The very detailed "drop of blood" emoji is the result of a campaign led by Plan International UK.

It saw more than 55,000 people calling for a period emoji to be added to the global emoji keyboard.

The charity hopes that by adding the new emoji to the world’s "digital vocabulary" it will help to break down the stigma surrounding periods.

Plan International's survey of around 2,000 young women in the UK found that about half believed a period emoji would help them talk about their period with their friends and family.

The emoji was approved by Unicode in early February 2019 and the design was unveiled as a red droplet of blood.

Plan International had called for a vote on which period emoji design would be used, with an emoji of blood on underwear winning the vote.

That design was ultimately rejected by Unicode who opted for the red droplet instead.