Oyster emoji hopes to join emoji lineup in future release

Fred Benenson, author of Emoji Dick and How to Speak Emoji, created a convincing case for one of the world’s most decadent food items. 

The proposal starts with a trend comparison between the humble hamburger and oysters, with the oyster faring extremely well against the popular fast food item. In a Google search comparison, oyster search results returned 31,500,000 - compared to the hamburgers 48,200,000.

Next the document compares Google Trend data, with the oyster losing out to the burger, but being vastly more popular than other shellfish related items that already have an emoji presence such as the octopus, prawn and squid.

Further in the proposal, Mr Benenson shows examples of expected usage and various contexts. For example, an oyster emoji could be used in sexual situations due to the food items aphrodisiac properties. There’s also the popular phrase the world is your oyster. There’s also the widely used oyster travel card used by people in London.

The proposal winds down with several examples of desire for the symbol including Buzzfeed articles and a steady stream of regular Twitter requests. The document even comments on Facebook’s inclusion of the “Sinister Oyster” stick back in 2014. Furthermore, a screenshot of a famous New York chef by the name of David Chang with the exclamation: why is there no oyster emoji?

This is not the first time a proposal for an oyster emoji has been made; in July 2017 of last year - the same author submitted a similar proposal for an emoji entitled Oyster with Pearl which was not included in the latest emoji standards. A theory for non-inclusion was the original emoji graphic presenting a clam rather than an oyster.

If approved, the oyster would join the recently proposed butter emoji - which is also being mulled over by the consortium.