World Emoji Day was celebrated yesterday, with Apple releasing a new Emoji Game for iOS 18 users. The Unicode Consortium also provided a preview of the upcoming new emoji glyphs for this year.
The Unicode Consortium ensures a standard way for characters to be rendered correctly on various devices. It was created in 1991 to accommodate glyphs used by foreign languages, expanding beyond the limitations of ASCII.
In 2010, Unicode standards were extended to ensure consistent display of emoji across platforms, a move initiated by Apple engineers. Prior to this, emoji were mainly used by Japanese mobile carriers.
Unicode standards are updated annually to accommodate new characters and languages. The recent Unicode 17.0 update proposed 164 new emoji and added 4,847 characters to support new language scripts.
Among the 164 new emoji proposed in Unicode 17.0, only nine are unique glyphs, including Trombone, Treasure Chest, Distorted Face, and more.
Platform developers interpret Unicode standards for emoji designs. Apple’s new emoji typically appear in products the following spring, with iOS updates like 15.4, 16.4, 17.4, and 18.4.
When Will We See These New Emojis?
The Unicode 17.0 specification is expected to be formally ratified in September, with potential inclusion in future iOS updates like 26.4.
