Next spring, you’ll notice a handful of new emojis pop up on your iPhone or Android device. As shared by Unicode Emoji Subcommittee Chair Jennifer Daniel, there are nine additions slated for 2027, including “Cracking Face,” “Leftwards Thumb Sign,” “Rightwards Thumb Sign,” “Monarch Butterfly,” “Pickle,” “Lighthouse,” “Meteor,” “Eraser,” and “Net With Handle.” It’s not the biggest update in emoji history, but it’s a fun assortment. (I can imagine “Cracked Face” is going to get some use.)
I always enjoy when new emojis hit the scene (who could live without the recent “Melting Face”), but I never really questioned how these emojis actually come to be. I imagine that’s the same for most of us who use these icons. Maybe some of us think that the individual tech companies (e.g., Apple, Google, etc.) are responsible; maybe others believe some faceless “Emoji Board” makes the decisions. The truth is actually quite surprising: As it turns out, it’s not organizations, but individuals, that decide what emojis come next. You could have your chance, too, if you want to take it.
You can request which emojis you want to see next
The thing is, there really is an “Emoji Board” of sorts. Emojis are developed by the “Unicode Consortium,” which traces its roots all the way back to 1991. While the consortium is responsible for developing and maintaining emojis, it doesn’t actually come up with which emojis to make next. Whenever you see a new emoji, whether that be “Cracked Face” or “Net With Handle,” the ideas are coming from real people outside the consortium, not from inside the consortium itself.
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as sending the consortium an email with a list of your brilliant ideas. If you really want the organization to take your emoji recommendations seriously, you’ll have to follow a strict set of guidelines. The first step? Make sure the emoji hasn’t already been approved (or declined). You can scroll through the consortium’s official “Emoji Proposals Status” page to see all of the emojis that have been formally submitted since 2015—more than a decade of entries. There’s a lot to see here: “Acne” was declined in 2020; “Cannabis” was declined in 2019; “mRNA” was declined in 2022. It’s an interesting scroll to be sure. Anything the consortium declined in the past four years is ineligible for re-review, which means if you see something that was declined more than four years ago, it’s fair game.
Your proposal itself needs to follow a formal format. The consortium has an outline on that guidelines page, which roughly equates to:
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Title: Proposal for Emoji [enter name here]
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Submitter: [your name here]
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Date: [today’s date here]
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Identification: Keywords for your emoji, and its proposed category
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Images: Include example images per a specific set of rules, as well as your licenses to prove you own the rights or have permissions to them
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Factors for inclusion, including evidence that the proposed emoji expresses multiple concepts, can be used with other emojis, introduces something new, is legible and distinct from other emojis, could be used frequently, completes a category that is incomplete, and is needed for compatibility with other platforms.
You also need to argue with evidence how your emoji proposal is not any of the following:
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Already represented
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Overly specific
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Open-ended
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Trendy
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Covered by an existing emoji
This is a brief overview of the rules. If you’re going to submit a proposal, read the consortium’s rules carefully.
Time is running out to submit an emoji
Submissions aren’t open year-round. For 2026, the consortium opened up its doors on April 2 and it plans to close them on July 31. That means you only have a couple of weeks from the time of this article to get your submissions in. Seeing as the submission process is quite complicated, I’d recommend getting started ASAP if you’re serious.
