It’s that time again! The Unicode Consortium this week published its Unicode 17 emoji recommendations. (PDF) The Consortium has proposed eight new emoji characters.
The proposed emoji are:
- Hairy creature (looks like Bigfoot to me, maybe they were afraid the big guy would sue them for trademark violation)
- Distorted face
- Fight cloud
- Apple core
- Orca
- Trombone
- Landslide
- Treasure chest.
There are also skin tone variations for a number of existing emoji, including ballet dancer, people with bunny ears, and people wrestling.
As usual, the Unicode Consortium has created mockups of what the emoji might look like, and the images have been shared by Emojipedia. Keep in mind that the Unicode Consortium only comes up with the underlying emoji code. Apple and Google designers will create their own version of each character in the Apple and Android style, respectively when the Unicode 17 standard is finalized.
The final designs will vary based on what major companies like Apple and Google choose, but Emojipedia has created sample illustrations of the candidate emojis. While some emoji might not make the final cut, most presented for approval are historically confirmed. The Unicode Consortium will finalize the list of new emojis in September.
Once the new emoji are confirmed, Apple will need to release new versions of watchOS, iOS, iPadOS, and macOS to support the new emojis. This is likely to occur early sometime around spring 2026 if Apple sticks with its typical emoji release timeline.
