At least eight new emoji will be arriving in 2017, including chopsticks, curling stones and dumplings, but one that won't be coming to smartphones any time soon is the rifle emoji. The gun had been proposed as part of a set of new icons representing winter sports (as was the curling stone emoji and a sled emoji, both of which have been approved). Rifles are used in the biathlon, which combines cross-country skiing and shooting at a target.

The proposals were due to be part of Unicode 9, the latest version of the text-handling standard which, among its responsibilities, ensures that emoji work on devices from various manufacturers. But instead, the rifle emoji, as well as the emoji for the summer sport of Modern Pentathlon (which involves pistol shooting), was unceremoniously dropped from plans at the last minute, according to Emojipedia.