Start

WHERE EMOJI COME FROM

A picture that
behaves like a letter.

Every emoji is a character, just like the letter A.

An old flip mobile phone with a small screen lying beside a modern smartphone on a pale wooden desk in soft window light — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

They began as 176 small icons on Japanese phones in 1999, joined the Unicode standard in 2009 and 2010, and now number 3,960. New ones still arrive each year, after a selective review.

12 × 12pixels, in 1999

Test an idea

Keep in mind

Born on Japanese phones
Coded by Unicode
Drawn by each platform
One code, many faces

THE SHORT ANSWER

Japanese phones,
then a world standard.

The word is Japanese: e means picture and moji means character.
It has nothing to do with emotion.

1999

176 tiny pictures

Shigetaka Kurita, a designer at NTT DOCOMO, made a set of 176 emoji on a 12 by 12 pixel grid for phones and pagers. The set is now in the collection of MoMA in New York.

See the numbers

UNICODE

One code for every phone

Unicode combined the emoji of Japanese mobile carriers into a set of 722 characters. Most were added in Unicode 6.0 in 2010, so a message could travel between systems.

Why they look different

NEW EMOJI

A selective yearly review

Anyone can propose an emoji, with evidence and original images. Unicode says only a very small percentage of submissions advance.

Test an idea

A QUICK IDEA CHECK

Would Unicode
look at it?

Pick a kind of emoji idea to see how Unicode's published rules treat it. The bar shows how the rules lean, from automatic decline to a factor in its favour.

Idea check

Choose an ideaA company logoA new flagA famous personA very specific itemA common object with many uses

A company logoDeclined

Logos and brands are on Unicode's list of automatic declines, along with UI icons and signage.

A new flagDeclined

Unicode says flags are no longer accepted as emoji proposals, so a flag idea is declined without review.

A famous personDeclined

Specific people, specific buildings and deities are all automatic declines, as are emoji that contain text.

A very specific itemCounts against

Being overly specific, or already showable with existing emoji, counts against a proposal. It is a factor, not an automatic no.

A common object with many usesIn its favour

Multiple meanings, high usage and being visually distinct all help. The proposal still needs search evidence and licensed images.

Source: Unicode Consortium, Submitting Emoji Proposals (selection factors and automatic declines).

Based on Unicode's guidance on submitting emoji proposals. Passing these rules does not mean an idea will be accepted.

TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING

From a handful
to thousands.

One figure from where emoji started,
one from the Unicode standard today.

176 emoji

Emoji in the first DOCOMO set

MoMA's record of Shigetaka Kurita's original set describes 176 emoji for mobile phones and pagers, each drawn on a 12 by 12 pixel grid.

1999 · MoMA

3,960 emoji

Emoji in the current version

Unicode's emoji count for Emoji 18.0 is 3,960, or 3,972 if you include the 12 component characters such as skin tones.

EMOJI 18.0 · UNICODE

Many of today's emoji are sequences: a skin tone modifier added to a hand, or several emoji joined by an invisible zero-width joiner and shown as one picture.

HOW A PROPOSAL WORKS

Have an idea?
Here is the route.

Unicode accepts proposals from anyone during a yearly window. The most recent ran from 2 April to 31 July 2026, and submissions re-open in 2027.

Pencil sketches of a small lighthouse and a pickle drawn on squared paper on a designer's desk, next to a closed laptop — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

Step 1

Check it is new

Look whether it is already approved or already requested. Ideas declined in the last four years cannot be reviewed again.

Step 2

Gather the evidence

Unicode asks for Google Search, Video, Trends and Books Ngram screenshots, with "elephant" as the comparison term. Petitions do not count.

Step 3

Draw it yourself

Sample images at 18 by 18 and 72 by 72 pixels, in colour and black and white, that you have the rights to license.

Step 4

Send one PDF

Submit a public PDF through the Unicode emoji submission form. Email and paper copies are not accepted.

SAME CODE, DIFFERENT FACES

Why your smile
looks different on mine.

A hand-drawn 12 by 12 grid on squared paper with coloured-in squares forming a simple smiling face, with coloured pencils beside it — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

Unicode decides which emoji exist and gives each one a code, but it does not draw them. Each platform designs its own images, so the same emoji can look different from phone to phone.

Platforms also decide when to add new emoji in their own software updates, because they need new fonts, keyboards and libraries. Unicode has no control over that timing.

Questions

Questions on the way

Does emoji come from the word emotion?

No. Unicode explains that the word comes from Japanese: e means picture and moji means character.

Who made the first emoji?

Shigetaka Kurita, a designer at NTT DOCOMO, made a set of 176 emoji released in 1999. MoMA holds the set in its collection, a gift of NTT DOCOMO.

When did emoji become part of Unicode?

The first characters meant as emoji were added in Unicode 5.2 in 2009. A wider set of 722 carrier emoji followed, with 608 of them added in Unicode 6.0 in 2010.

Where do the skin tone options come from?

Five skin tone modifiers were added in Unicode 8.0 in 2015. They are based on the Fitzpatrick scale used in dermatology.

Which emoji is used most?

In Unicode's 2019 frequency data, the face with tears of joy was the most used emoji, with the red heart in the same top group.

Destination

Where the facts come from

Updated 14 October 2026

A picture thatbehaves like a letter.

Japanese phones,then a world standard.