New emojis begin as user-driven proposals that must satisfy strict technical, linguistic, and accessibility standards. Making a new emoji means submitting a well-designed proposal to the Unicode Consortium, where experts evaluate distinctiveness, expected usage, compatibility, and implementability before inclusion in a Unicode release. This process outlines how ideas become globally available emoji characters across operating systems, keyboards, and apps.
What Are Emojis and How Are They Standardized
Emojis are standardized pictographs, symbols, and ideographs encoded by Unicode to enable consistent text-based expression across devices. The Unicode Consortium maintains the official Unicode Standard, which defines characters, properties, and rendering expectations. Each proposed emoji must fit within Unicode’s allocation rules, respect existing symbols, and demonstrate a clear need in digital communication. Encoding decisions balance visual clarity, semantic clarity, and the practical constraints of keyboards, fonts, and software platforms.
Who Can Submit Emoji Proposals
Individuals, organizations, and vendors can submit emoji proposals, but submissions must follow strict formatting and content guidelines. Corporations and working groups often coordinate proposals through recognized consortium members to ensure completeness and technical soundness. Contributors must provide strong use cases, demonstrate distinct semantic meaning, and show evidence of demand across languages and communities. Proposers are expected to collaborate with relevant national standards bodies and stakeholders to avoid duplicates and conflicting designs.
Proposal Requirements and Evaluation Criteria
Demonstrate Need and Distinct Meaning
Each proposal should justify why the emoji is necessary beyond existing characters. Reviewers examine whether the concept fills a semantic gap used across languages, such as specific roles, culturally significant objects, or unambiguous symbols for communication. Concepts that duplicate existing emoji or closely resemble them without meaningful differentiation are typically rejected.
Evidence of Usage and Implementability
Proposals require real-world evidence such as search trends, industry adoption, keyboard layouts, and usage in messaging and social platforms. Technical reviewers assess file formats, glyph design requirements, and how the character integrates into text layout, line breaking, and collation. Compatibility with existing fonts and rendering engines is also considered to minimize implementation burden.
Review Process and Subcommittees
The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee reviews proposals against objective metrics, community feedback, and alignment with the Unicode Standard. Members analyze linguistic coverage, potential for ambiguity, visual clarity, and cross-platform consistency. Final approval can take multiple meetings, especially for complex symbols, skin tone modifiers, gender inclusivity, and region-specific concepts. Rejected proposals may be invited for revision or deferred to future review cycles.
From Approval to Keyboard Availability
After Unicode approval, vendors implement the new character in their operating systems, emoji libraries, and keyboards. Design teams create consistent, legible glyphs at multiple sizes while meeting accessibility requirements such as clear differentiation and meaningful default text labels. Platform providers then roll out updates through regular software releases, making the emoji broadly available on devices and services.
Practical Process Overview
| Step | Verified Detail | Source Type |
|---|---|---|
| Research and Gap Analysis | Analyze existing emoji, language needs, and search demand to identify missing concepts | Community and vendor analysis |
| Draft Proposal and Evidence | Prepare multi-page submission with usage statistics, visual examples, and implementability notes | Working Group documents |
| Consortium Review | Unicode Emoji Subcommittee evaluates distinctness, compatibility, and expected adoption | Official Unicode submissions |
| Design and Specification | Create visual assets, glyph metrics, and metadata including short names and keywords | Vendor design guidelines |
| Platform Implementation | Operating systems and apps integrate the emoji, with fallback handling and accessibility support | Release notes and SDK updates |
| Public Release | Emoji becomes available in keyboards and messaging tools after OS or app updates | Public software updates |
Design and Specification Checklist
- Provide multiple sizes (16, 24, 32, 64, 128 px) with consistent stroke weight and detail
- Include default text label, keywords, and short name aligned with Unicode naming conventions
- Ensure legibility at small sizes and high-contrast variants for accessibility
- Define behavior for directional variants, skin tone modifiers, and gender where applicable
- Test rendering across platforms to confirm clarity and avoid confusion with similar symbols
Best Practices for Contributors and Designers
Successful emoji proposals rely on clear semantics, strong usage evidence, and high-quality designs that scale across contexts. Collaborate early with national standards bodies and industry partners to align proposals with regional and cultural needs. Maintain consistent visual language with existing emoji families to preserve coherence across keyboards. Pay attention to accessibility by choosing distinguishable shapes, colors, and meaningful labels that assistive technologies can interpret.
Common Pitfalls and Misconceptions
Not every idea or trending concept qualifies for inclusion; novelty alone does not guarantee approval. Emoji are characters, not illustrations, so concepts must meet Unicode stability and cross-platform requirements. Avoid proposing symbols that are too similar to existing emoji, culturally ambiguous, or tied to transient trends. Proposals that lack evidence of broad, durable demand or that cannot be implemented consistently across devices are unlikely to advance.