If you’ve ever wondered how a new emoji makes its way onto your phone, the answer is less mysterious than it seems: the ideas do not come from Apple, Google, or some secret committee inside a tech company. According to the report, new emoji proposals are submitted by individuals through the Unicode Consortium, the organization that develops and maintains the emoji system.
The process is not as simple as sending in a casual suggestion. Before a proposal can be taken seriously, it has to fit the consortium’s rules. That starts with checking whether the idea has already been approved or turned down. The group keeps an official status page of emoji proposals going back to 2015, and anything rejected within the last four years cannot be resubmitted for review. Older rejections may still be eligible.
A proper submission also has to follow a formal structure. The proposal needs a title, the submitter’s name, the date, keywords and category information, example images that meet the required rules, and proof that the images can be used legally. Beyond that, the proposal has to make a case for why the emoji belongs: it should represent more than one idea, work well with other emojis, add something distinct, be easy to recognize, have potential for regular use, fill a gap in an incomplete category, or support compatibility with other platforms.
The consortium also wants applicants to explain why the idea is not already covered, too narrow, too open-ended, just a passing trend, or redundant with an existing emoji. On top of all that, timing matters. For 2026, submissions opened on April 2 and are scheduled to close on July 31, so anyone hoping to get an idea in has only a short window left. The report notes that the process is detailed enough that serious applicants should start early and read the official guidelines closely before sending anything in.
Source: lifehacker.com
