How New Emojis Get Proposed and Added to Unicode
New emojis take roughly two years from idea to shipped glyph. Here is how the Emoji Subcommittee evaluates proposals and what gets rejected. Every year, new emojis appear on your keyboard, and none of them got there by accident. Each one went through a proposal process run by the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, a process that takes roughly two years from idea to shipped glyph. I followed several proposals through the pipeline while researching a reference tool, and the process is more structured, and more selective, than I expected. I attended a Unicode Consortium meeting as an observer and was struck by how deliberative the process is. Each proposal is read, discussed, and voted on. The Subcommittee debates whether the emoji fills a gap, whether it will be used, whether it can be rendered at small sizes. The debates are technical but also cultural, because emojis are communication tools and their cultural impact matters. Who Can Propose an Emoji Anyone can submit an emoji proposal. You do not need to be a Consortium member or represent an organization. The proposal form is public, and the requirements are documented in the Unicode emoji submission guidelines. This openness is real: several emojis in current use originated from individual proposals, not corporate ones. The openness is balanced by strictness. Read the full article on Emoji Reference, and copy any emoji mentioned from the catalog of 1303+ entries on the home page.