The day you've all been waiting for has finally arrived, everyone. Google has announced the final release of Android 8.1 Oreo Unicode has announced the Emoji 11.0 beta list with no fewer than 130 candidates battling it out for a place in the final version, including cupcake, woman/man red-haired, and softball.

We must now endure a tense wait until the Unicode Technical Meeting sometime in January when the final list will be deliberated, and the fate of spool of thread will be decided. Other high-profile candidates include teddy bear, swan, mango, and party face.

Another change that might be happening is a move to allow changes of direction to glyphs. For example, you might want to flip the train emoji to face either left or right. It's apparently something Emojipedia users have long been clamoring for, so there will be plenty of smiling face with smiling eyes doing the rounds if the feature is given the go-ahead.

The new emoji won't be publicly released until later in 2018. For now, developers can access the new candidates and provide their feedback.

Source: Emojipedia, Unicode