Noto 3D Emojis
The biggest change to Android emoji since the blobs
What emoji did Noto 3D add?
Google redrew its entire emoji set as volumetric 3D renders with real lighting and shadow, replacing the flat gradient artwork that had defined Android since 2017. Roughly 4,000 emoji were remodelled. It is a redesign rather than a version bump: no new characters were added, so nothing that was missing before became available. The set debuted on 20 August 2026 on the Pixel 11, and reporting from 9to5Google put the wider rollout to other manufacturers at 17 September 2026. Android 17, released on 16 June 2026, did not include it.
A redesign is not a version update, and the difference matters
Two things get confused whenever Android emoji change. A version update adds characters that did not exist before, so an emoji you could not type suddenly appears on the keyboard. A redesign changes the drawing of characters you already had. Noto 3D is entirely the second kind. Nothing new became typeable on 20 August 2026, which is why a phone that showed an empty box for a recent emoji before the update still shows one after it. The confusion is understandable because both arrive the same way, through a font update, and both change what you see.
Android 17 shipped first, without it
Android 17 was released on 16 June 2026 and did not carry the new artwork. Noto 3D arrived separately two months later on the Pixel 11, and reporting from 9to5Google put the wider rollout to other manufacturers at 17 September 2026, naming Nothing, Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus, Motorola, HONOR, vivo, realme, TECNO, Infinix, itel and Lenovo. That separation is now normal. Google decoupled emoji from the annual OS release years ago, which is why asking which Android version has a given emoji set is usually the wrong question.
Why it looks different on the phone you are texting
Emoji artwork is resolved by the device doing the displaying, not the one doing the sending. Your message carries a character, and the recipient's font decides what that character looks like. So a 3D Noto drawing never travels: an iPhone shows Apple's version, a Samsung shows Samsung's, and an older Android shows the flat set. This is also why a redesign can feel like it broke a conversation when nothing about the text changed at all.
At a glance
| Shipped | |
|---|---|
| Platform | Google Android |
| Emoji redesigned | ~4,000 |
The emoji Noto 3D is remembered for
How to get these emoji
Emoji ship inside the system font, so there is no separate download and nothing to enable.
- Open Settings, then General, then Software Update.
- Install Noto 3D or any later version.
- Open any keyboard and tap the emoji button. The new characters are already in the picker.
If you send one of these to somebody on an older release, they see a blank box. The character transmits correctly either way, and appears as soon as they update.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do my Android emoji suddenly look 3D?
Google replaced its flat emoji artwork with Noto 3D, a set of volumetric renders with lighting and shadow. It arrived on the Pixel 11 on 20 August 2026 and spread to other manufacturers from mid September. Nothing is broken and no setting was changed on your phone.
Can I go back to the old Android emoji?
Not through a normal setting. The artwork ships inside the system emoji font, so reverting means replacing that font, which generally requires root access or a custom ROM. A third party keyboard will not change it either, since most keyboards draw using the system font.
Did Noto 3D add any new emoji?
No. It is purely a redesign of roughly 4,000 existing emoji. If a character was missing from your keyboard before the update it is still missing, because new characters arrive with Unicode support rather than with an artwork refresh.
Will people on other phones see the 3D versions?
No. Emoji artwork is drawn by the device displaying the message, not the one sending it. Someone on an iPhone sees Apple's designs no matter what your phone shows, which is why the same message can look completely different at each end.
Browse iOS emoji releases
Related iOS releases
Further reading
- Why some emoji look identicalCucumber against pickle, comet against meteor, and 18 more pairs.
- The seahorse emoji that never existedWhy millions remember one, and why AI chatbots insist it is real.
- The 25 oldest emoji, dated to 1993Checked against Unicode's own character age file. Half of them are zodiac.