The smallest emoji release in a decade, and the tired face that carried it
Unicode 16.0 arrived on 10 September 2024 with seven new emoji code points, the leanest set since emoji numbering began. One of them did almost all the cultural work: the face with bags under eyes ๐ซฉ was adopted instantly as shorthand for exhaustion, and it became the most-shared emoji of the release before most phones could even display it.
| Released | |
|---|---|
| New emoji characters | 7 |
| Total including sequences | 8 |
A reminder that volume and impact are unrelated. Seven characters, and the one everybody wanted was a drawing of being tired.
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 18.4 | March 2025 |
| Android 15 / 16 | 2025 | |
| Samsung | One UI 7 | 2025 |
The runaway hit of the release. Burnout, insomnia, parenting a newborn, or the Monday after a long weekend.
Identity, forensics, biometric login. A practical addition that had been proposed repeatedly.
Winter, drought and loss. The existing tree emoji were all relentlessly green.
Drawn as a turnip, intended to stand in for root vegetables generally.
Another gap in the instrument set closed.
Digging, gardening, burying things, and a great deal of metaphorical use.
An abstract splash that works for paint, mess or impact.
Seven new code points, with one additional sequence counted in Emoji 16.0, giving eight in total. It is the smallest emoji release since the versions were given their own numbering.
๐ซฉ reads as exhaustion rather than sadness. People use it for sleep deprivation, burnout and the specific tiredness that does not improve with a nap. It became popular well before most devices could render it.
Apple added them in iOS 18.4, released on 31 March 2025, about six and a half months after Unicode published the standard.
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.