Approved last month, and not on a single phone yet
Unicode 18.0 was ratified on 16 September 2026 with nine new emoji concepts and nineteen code points once the thumb-gesture skin-tone variants are counted. None of them render anywhere yet. Apple, Google and Samsung all need to draw the artwork and ship a font update first, which is why the names below appear without pictures.
| Released | |
|---|---|
| New emoji characters | 9 |
| Total including sequences | 19 |
One candidate changed shape during review. The draft list published in January 2026 proposed a smiley face with squinting eyes, and the Emoji Standard and Research group recommended replacing it with the cracking face that made the final set.
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 | Not yet shipped | Expected 2027 |
| Not yet shipped | Expected 2027 | |
| Samsung | Not yet shipped | Expected 2027 |
A face splitting apart under pressure. Replaced the squinting-eyes smiley that appeared in the January draft.
A standalone pickle, after years of proposals arguing the cucumber did not cover it.
Guidance and warning, and a long-requested coastal landmark.
Distinct from the existing shooting star, which reads as a wish rather than an impact.
Undoing and correcting. Pairs with the existing pencil.
Specifically the monarch, proposed with its migration and conservation status cited.
A bug-catching net with a handle.
A thumb pointing left. Ships with five skin tones.
The mirrored gesture, also with five skin tones. The two thumbs account for all ten variant code points.
Not really. The standard was ratified on 16 September 2026, but no platform has shipped the artwork. Until Apple, Google or Samsung push a font update, these characters show as blank boxes, so sending one means the other person sees nothing useful.
No date has been announced. Apple has added new emoji in a March or April point release every year since iOS 15.4, so a 2027 spring update is the pattern to expect rather than a promise. Emojipedia expects broad platform support through 2027.
Nine are new concepts. The other ten are skin-tone variants of the two new thumb gestures, five tones each. Counting sequences alongside new drawings is why headline emoji counts always look larger than what you actually see on a keyboard.
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.