Emoji are pictographs (pictorial symbols) that are typically presented in
a colorful form and used inline in text. They represent things such as
faces, weather, vehicles and buildings, food and drink, animals and
plants, or icons that represent emotions, feelings, or activities.
This page provides information about Unicode emoji and their development. For external resources on emoji, see Emoji Resources.
For information about emoji images on this site, see
Emoji Images and Rights.
The presentation at the top right gives an overview of Unicode emoji.
There isn’t a voice-over, so click on the gear to open the speaker notes.
The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is responsible for the following:
- Updating, revising, and extending emoji documents such as
UTS #51,
Unicode Emoji and
Unicode Emoji Charts.
- Taking input from various sources and reviewing requests for new
emoji characters.
- Creating proposals for the Unicode Technical Committee regarding
additional emoji characters and new emoji-related mechanisms.
- Investigating longer-term mechanisms for supporting emoji as
images (stickers).
The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is a subcommittee of the
Unicode Technical
Committee operating under the
Technical
Committee Procedures. Current chair is Mark Davis (Google) with
vice-chairs Jeremy Burge (Emojipedia) and Jennifer 8. Lee (Emojination).
Participation in the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee weekly video/phone
meetings
and mailing list is open to
members of the
Unicode Consortium as listed in §13.1 of the Technical Committee Procedures, plus invited guests.
Contact us for
more information.