How to Propose a New Emoji to Unicode — the Real Process

Every new emoji on your keyboard was once somebody's proposal: the dumpling was lobbied by a journalist, khinkali had a whole campaign, matcha made it thanks to a schoolgirl. Anyone can propose an emoji — the procedure is open, free and documented step by step. The catch: the consortium rejects most proposals. Here's how it works — who decides, by what criteria, and what to put in a proposal to give it a chance.

Who actually decides

Emoji are standardized by the Unicode Consortium — the same organization that encodes all the world's scripts. Inside it, the emoji subcommittee collects proposals, filters them and puts a shortlist to a member vote. Full members are mostly tech corporations (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta and others): in effect, your keyboard's future is decided by the club of companies that will have to draw those emoji.

Note the division of labor: Unicode approves the character and its meaning, while each vendor draws its own artwork — which is why an approved emoji looks different on iPhone and Android — we cover the reasons separately. Compare Apple's and Google's renderings in our emoji catalog.

The criteria that help

The subcommittee scores proposals against published criteria:

• Frequency of use — the big one. You must show mass demand: search statistics, word frequency, petitions. The dumpling proposal passed exactly on data showing dumplings are eaten on every continent.
• Multiple meanings. A strong emoji works beyond the literal: the shrimp 🦐 is food, "tiny", and internet slang. How emoji accrete meanings: popular emoji meanings.
• Distinctness. If the meaning is expressible with existing emoji or their combinations — rejection.
• Category completeness. Gaps in the ranks: if 🐘 and 🦒 exist but the capybara doesn't, that's an argument in favor (and yes, that's how the capybara got in).

What's banned

The exclusion list is strict, and most naive proposals shatter against it:

• Logos, brands, trademarks — your company's emoji will never happen: the standard cannot contain third‑party IP, and we cover how marks are protected elsewhere. Brands solve this differently — with custom emoji in messengers like Telegram.
• Specific people — living, historical or fictional.
• Deities and religious figures.
• New flags — flag submissions are closed entirely, though how flag emoji work is a story on its own.
• The too‑narrow and too‑momentary — seasonal memes and local phenomena: emoji are added forever and can never be removed from the standard.

What a proposal looks like

A proposal is a document following the official template, filed during the open window on unicode.org:

1. Name and category of the proposed emoji.
2. Sample artwork — black‑and‑white and color, readable at 18×18 px (the same discipline as favicons); the images must be free of third‑party rights.
3. Justification against every criterion — with data: search trend charts, frequency dictionaries, comparisons with already‑approved emoji.
4. Expected ZWJ combinations, if any (how the character will combine with existing ones).

Then: subcommittee review (questions and revisions possible), candidate status in a draft release, the vote, publication of the standard — and, another year later, vendor artwork and arrival in iOS/Android updates. Total from filing to keyboard: one and a half to two years.

Odds and alternatives

Honest statistics: a few dozen new emoji are approved yearly out of hundreds of filings, and the share of "street" proposals among them is small. If your goal is practical rather than historical, faster routes exist:

• Custom emoji and stickers in Telegram and Discord — your own set in an evening with our guide.
• Kaomoji and text smileys — expressiveness with no standards required, same with nickname symbols.
• Combinations of existing emoji — a language every platform understands, the same trick brands use in marketing.

And to browse all 1,900+ existing emoji — with Russian names and both Apple and Google artwork — use our catalog. The symbol you need may already exist: checking that is literally the first step on the official proposal form.