About Emoji
92% of the world’s online population use emoji in their communications – and Unicode defines the characters that make those human connections possible. These 3,600+ emoji represent faces, weather, vehicles and buildings, food and drink, animals, and more. From a technical perspective, inside the computer or phone, each is a sequence of one or more Unicode characters, but to the billions of users using emoji each day, they can express love, congratulations, ideas, culture, and much more.
The Unicode Consortium solicits proposals from the public for which new emoji should be considered for inclusion in the standard. Here’s a sample of some of the latest emoji to be added:
How Are New Emoji Selected?
The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee regularly reviews proposals for new emoji. The selection criteria are fully defined here, but in essence they boil down to this: a) will the image work at the small size at which emoji are commonly used, b) does the emoji add to what can be said using emoji or can the idea be expressed using existing emoji, c) is there substantial evidence that a large number of people will likely use this new emoji.
Check out this video by TechInsider for a good explanation of the process.
Go Deeper
For in-depth explanations of some of the considerations that go into the selection and design of emoji, check out these videos on our Unicode Consortium YouTube channel:
Race is Not a Skin Tone. Gender is Not a Haircut.
Hanmoji: Analyzing Chinese Radicals to Determine Semantic Gaps in Emoji
Other questions? For more technical information see: https://unicode.org/emoji/techindex.html
Or See our FAQ
Or check out these resources: Emojipedia Emoji Tracker Emojination
Do You Have a Favorite Emoji? Adopt It!
Whatever your favorite letter, symbol, or emoji, you can show your appreciation and support the work of the Unicode Consortium by Adopting a Character!
