118 new emoji, and not one new character behind them
Emoji 15.1 was published on 12 September 2023 alongside Unicode 15.1, and it is the oddest entry in this list: 118 new emoji built from zero new code points. Every addition is a sequence, meaning existing characters joined with a zero-width joiner so vendors draw them as one image. The phoenix ๐ฆโ๐ฅ is a bird joined to fire. The lime ๐โ๐ฉ is a lemon joined to a green square. Most of the count is people who can finally face right instead of left.
| Released | |
|---|---|
| New emoji characters | 0 |
| Total including sequences | 118 |
This is where the emoji set stopped growing outward and started filling itself in. Direction was a genuine gap: every walking, running and kneeling person faced the same way, so two of them could never be shown heading towards each other or going opposite ways.
Unicode publishing a standard and your phone drawing the emoji are two separate events, usually months apart. These are the releases that added support.
| Platform | Added in | When |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | iOS 17.4 | March 2024 |
| Android 15 | 2024 |
A bird joined to fire. The only new creature in the release, and the one addition most people noticed. Reads as rebirth or a comeback.
A lemon joined to a green square. Lime had been requested for years, and this was the cheapest possible way to grant it.
The original ๐ is a red fly agaric, which is poisonous. This is the edible kind people actually cook with.
Chains joined to a collision symbol. Used for freedom, release, and breaking out of a cycle.
A face joined to a left-right arrow. The shake that means no, or flat disbelief.
The nod. Agreement, or the resigned kind of acceptance that does not need words.
One of roughly a hundred directional variants. Trivial on its own, but together they let a conversation show movement in both directions.
118, and none of them needed a new Unicode character. Every one is a sequence: two or more existing emoji joined with a zero-width joiner so vendors can draw them as a single image. That is why the count looks large next to a standard release that added nothing new underneath.
๐ฆโ๐ฅ is a bird joined to fire, added in Emoji 15.1. It reads as rebirth, a comeback, or rising from a setback. Apple, Google and Samsung all draw it as one burning bird rather than a bird standing next to a flame.
Emoji 15.1 added right-facing variants of the walking, running, kneeling and wheelchair emoji. Before it every one of them faced the same direction, so there was no way to show two people moving towards each other or someone heading the other way.
See what arrived most recently on our newest emoji page, check which characters people are using right now in trending emoji, or dig into the numbers in our emoji statistics.
Approval is only half the story. To see which iOS release actually put these on a phone, and when, see iOS emoji updates.