diff --git a/emoji/__init__.py b/emoji/__init__.py
index f44264c9..5bf484d6 100644
--- a/emoji/__init__.py
+++ b/emoji/__init__.py
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
     'EMOJI_ALIAS_UNICODE_ENGLISH', 'UNICODE_EMOJI_ALIAS_ENGLISH', 'EMOJI_DATA',
 ]
 
-__version__ = '1.6.3'
+__version__ = '1.7.0'
 __author__ = 'Taehoon Kim, Kevin Wurster and Tahir Jalilov'
 __email__ = 'carpedm20@gmail.com'
 # and wursterk@gmail.com, tahir.jalilov@gmail.com