- We now have Unicode approval for 163 new emojis
- They have appeared first in a new Android 16 beta
- Everyone should get these emojis by early 2026
You’ll soon have a wealth of new ways to express yourself pictorially, as 163 new emojis have now been approved by Unicode – the top emoji regulator – and you can test them out now if you’re running the latest Android 16 QPR3 beta.
If you have a very good memory, you might remember that this series of new graphics were proposed last November, and they all made it through the approval process except for the eaten apple core (it’s not clear why we lost that particular one).
According to Emojipedia, there are actually only seven new basic emojis: Distorted Face, Fight Cloud, Orca, Hairy Creature (think Bigfoot), Trombone, Landslide, and Treasure Chest. The 163 comes from variations of these emojis, and new variations (in terms of skin color, for example) of emojis already in use.
If you view the Emojipedia page on a device that hasn’t added support for the new emojis — so basically anything that isn’t running Android 16 QPR3 beta — you’ll see rectangles in the text where the emojis should be. But helpfully there are also pictures so you can see what they look like.
3,953 emojis and counting
You can get more details about the new emojis from the post on the official Unicode blog, which you’ll see mentions a whopping 4,803 new characters in total, covering emojis, scripts, symbols, and other characters. It also mentions eight new emojis, suggesting that the apple core was dropped at the last minute.
Each emoji comes with a number of variations attached, including those for different genders and skin tones. There are also sketched versions of each emoji available. That brings the total number of Unicode-approved emojis to 3,953 at the end of 2025, giving you plenty of options to express yourself.
As usual, it’s up to device manufacturers and software developers to get busy sketching out their own versions of these emojis – which is why they’ll look slightly different on iPhones, Android devices, Windows computers and inside apps like WhatsApp.
If you want to try these emojis right away, you can join the Android 16 beta from here (just remember that your contacts must also be using the beta to see them). They should start appearing on all Android devices (and probably iPhones too) in early 2026.
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