Proposed Update UTR #51, Unicode Emoji (Version 5.0)

A proposed update of UTR #51, Unicode Emoji (Version 5.0) is available for public review and feedback. This new version adds a mechanism to support regional flags, such as Scotland or California, though the choice of which of these flags to support is left to vendors.

Associated charts are available at http://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts-beta/index.html, and associated data files are available at http://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/5.0/. This proposed update also has a separate data file for the valid emoji presentation sequences, and reflects a small change in the ordering of SELFIE. The charts also add the newest Apple and Facebook emoji.

At this time, the proposed update does not add any additional recommended emoji zwj sequences, nor reclassify any existing Unicode 9.0 characters as emoji. There are proposals for doing so that will be reviewed in the next Unicode Technical Committee meeting.

The review period for the proposed update ends on January 16, 2017. For further information and instructions on how to provide feedback, please see Public Review Issue #343.

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This holiday season you can give a unique gift by adopting any emoji, letter, or symbol — and help support the Unicode Consortium’s mission to enable all languages to be used on computers. You can now adopt Unicode 9.0 characters and the Emoji 4.0 emoji sequences (such as woman astronaut or rockstar). ​​See the Adopt-a-Character Page.

113 New Unicode Emoji (plus skin tones)

113 new emoji are now available in UTR #51 Unicode Emoji, Version 4.0. The main focus of this 4.0 release is further enhancing gender representation and professions. These new emoji are already appearing on smart phones and other devices and platforms that support emoji. See the full list in Emoji Recently Added.

The new emoji will soon be available for adoption, helping fund projects to improve language support.

Unlike the 72 emoji characters added to Unicode 9.0 in June, these are not new Unicode characters. Most of these new emoji are sequences of existing emoji, “glued together” with a special invisible character so that they appear and behave like a single character. This glue character is called a ZWJ, pronounced “zwidge” or /zwɪdʒ/. Three existing Unicode 9.0 characters (gender and medical symbols) were changed to qualify as emoji, for use in those ZWJ sequences.

Two of the new sequences are flags, 10 are family groupings (such as mother with daughter), 32 are new professions/roles (such as man or woman astronaut), and 66 are explicit-gendered variants (such as man or woman running). 99 of these sequences, plus 5 other characters (such as snowboarder), can also now have the 5 skin tone modifiers.

The technical documentation has also been updated, with additional guidelines for implementers and the new versions of the emoji data files for use in programs.

Proposed Update UTR #51, Unicode Emoji (Version 4.0)

A proposed update of UTR #51, Unicode Emoji (Version 4.0) is available for public review and feedback. This new version covers a total of 2,243 emoji, an increase from the 1,788 in Version 3.0.

There are several important changes in the proposed update. Three existing symbols have been newly classified as emoji: U+2640 FEMALE SIGN, U+2642 MALE SIGN, and U+2695 STAFF OF AESCULAPIUS. These are used in sequences to represent additional professions and to make gender distinctions among emoji. Many new emoji zwj sequences are cataloged, including professions and roles, gender distinctions, and new family groupings. Two new flag emoji have been added, one as an emoji zwj sequence and one as a regional indicator pair. Ten additional emoji characters are newly classified as emoji modifier bases. This results in 50 new emoji modifier sequences, displaying skin tone diversity. For example, see the emoji data for U+1F93C WRESTLERS.

Associated charts are available at http://unicode.org/emoji/charts-beta/index.html, and associated data files are available at http://unicode.org/Public/emoji/4.0/.

The review period for the proposed update ends on October 24, 2016. Feedback can be submitted through the online reporting form.

Announcing The Unicode® Standard, Version 9.0

Version 9.0 of the Unicode Standard is now available. Version 9.0 adds exactly 7,500 characters, for a total of 128,172 characters. These additions include six new scripts and 72 new emoji characters.

The new scripts and characters in Version 9.0 add support for lesser-used languages worldwide, including:

• Osage, a Native American language
• Nepal Bhasa, a language of Nepal
• Fulani and other African languages
• The Bravanese dialect of Swahili, used in Somalia
• The Warsh orthography for Arabic, used in North and West Africa
• Tangut, a major historic script of China

Important symbol additions include:

• 19 symbols for the new 4K TV standard
• 72 emoji characters such as the following

Smileys & people		ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING
		FACE PALM
Hand gestures		HAND WITH INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CROSSED
Animals		BUTTERFLY
Food		AVOCADO
		SHALLOW PAN OF FOOD
Drink		CLINKING GLASSES
Travel		MOTOR SCOOTER
Sports		PERSON DOING CARTWHEEL

For the full list, see emoji additions for Unicode 9.0. For a detailed description of support for emoji characters by the Unicode Standard, see UTR #51, Unicode Emoji.

Three other important Unicode specifications have been updated for Version 9.0:

• UTS #10, Unicode Collation Algorithm — sorting Unicode text
• UTS #39, Unicode Security Mechanisms — reducing Unicode spoofing
• UTS #46, Unicode IDNA Compatibility Processing — compatible processing of non-ASCII URLs

Some of the changes in Version 9.0 and associated Unicode technical standards and reports may require modifications in implementations. For more information, see Unicode 9.0 Migration and the migration sections of UTS #10, UTS #39, UTS #46, and UTR #51. For full details on Version 9.0, see http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode9.0.0/

Draft Unicode Emoji Enhancements

Unicode emoji characters are specified by UTR #51, Unicode Emoji and its related data files. Now available for public review and comment are a proposed update of UTR #51, plus a draft of a related new document, UTS #52, Unicode Emoji Mechanisms.

UTS #52, Unicode Emoji Mechanisms provides a new way of representing customizations of Unicode emoji characters. The first specified customizations provide for flags for subdivisions of countries (such as Scotland or California), gender variants (such as female runners or males raising a hand), hair color variants (a red-haired dancer), and directional variants (pointing a hand or bicyclist to the right). Currently this is only a draft, but feedback is being solicited on a number of topics. From users of emoji, feedback would be useful on which variants are the highest priority, and whether any characters should be added or removed to the lists of characters that qualify for each variant. From implementers, feedback is needed on whether there are any technical problems in the customization mechanism itself, and whether that mechanism is sufficiently extensible for future types of customizations.

The proposed update UTR #51, Unicode Emoji describes two new mechanisms for controlling whether emoji characters appear as text (black and white) or with a colorful rendition, and clarifies some of the previous text. There is also a proposed narrowing of the definition of the sequences used for family groupings.

Feedback must be submitted through the associated Public Review Issues by May 1 for consideration at the 2016Q2 Unicode Technical Committee meeting.

PRI #319: UTR #51, Unicode Emoji
PRI #321: UTS #52, Unicode Emoji Mechanisms

 

Unicode 9.0 Candidate Characters

The Unicode Consortium has accepted 7 new emoji characters as candidates for Unicode 9.0, scheduled for release in mid-2016. This makes a total of 74 emoji candidates. These join thousands of non-emoji candidate characters for Unicode 9.0.

At this point, the characters for Unicode 9.0 are candidates—not yet finalized—so some may be removed from the candidate list, and others may be added. Names, images, and code points may also change, so these candidates are not yet ready for use in production systems. The additions of emoji characters to Unicode are based on the emoji selection factors. Other prospective emoji characters are still being assessed and could be approved as candidates in the future.

There is also a new version of UTR #51, Unicode Emoji, which provides design guidelines and data for improving emoji interoperability across platforms, and gives background information about emoji symbols. Aside from general clarifications in the text, several annexes are moved to separate pages to allow for faster updates, the level distinction among emoji is removed, and certain characters no longer allow for emoji modifiers for skin-tone. These changes are also reflected in new machine-readable emoji data files for implementations.

The emoji charts have also been updated. These include a full listing of emoji characters (with images from various vendors), the default ordering of emoji, annotations, when various emoji were added to Unicode, and more.

New Unicode Pages on Emoji

New information about emoji is available on The Unicode Consortium website, including the following:

Emoji Candidates — The comprehensive list of all 67 emoji candidate emoji characters that have been accepted by the UTC (Unicode Technical Committee) as candidates, but are not yet added to the Unicode Standard.

Emoji Resources — External resources with useful information about Emoji.

In addition, the Emoji charts have been refreshed with new emoji images and two reformatted pages from UTR#51. Most of the new images are from Apple's September 2015 releases (OS X 10.11 and iOS 9.0), mainly additional flag emoji.

Emoji Recently Added — the emoji characters mostly recently added to the Unicode Standard.

Emoji ZWJ Sequences — a catalog of emoji zwj sequences that are supported on at least one commonly available platform.

Media Articles on Emoji has also been updated.

The UTC will be meeting the first week of November, and on the agenda will be additional emoji recommendations from the Emoji Subcommittee.

Unicode 8.0 Beta Review

Mountain View, CA, USA – The Unicode® Consortium today announced the start of the beta review for the forthcoming Unicode 8.0.0, which is scheduled for release in June, 2015. All beta feedback must be submitted by April 27, 2015.
Unicode is the foundation for all modern software and communications around the world, including all modern operating systems, browsers, and smart phones; modern web protocols (HTML, XML, ...); and internationalized domain names. Thus it is important to ensure a smooth transition to each new version of the Unicode Standard.

Unicode 8.0.0 comprises several changes which require careful migration in implementations, including the conversion of Cherokee to a bicameral script, a different encoding model for New Tai Lue, and additional character repertoire. Implementers need to change code and check assumptions regarding case mappings, New Tai Lue syllables, Han character ranges, and confusables. Character additions in Unicode 8.0.0 include emoji symbol modifiers for implementing skin tone diversity, other emoji symbols, a large collection of CJK unified ideographs, a new currency sign for the Georgian lari, and six new scripts. For more information on emoji in Unicode 8.0.0, see the associated draft Unicode Emoji report.

Please review the documentation, adjust your code, test the data files, and report errors and other issues to the Unicode Consortium by April 27, 2015. Feedback instructions are on the beta page.

• See http://unicode.org/versions/beta-8.0.0.html for more information about testing the 8.0.0 beta.
• See http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode8.0.0/ for the current draft summary of Unicode 8.0.0.

About the Unicode Consortium

The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization founded to develop, extend and promote use of the Unicode Standard and related globalization standards. The membership of the consortium represents a broad spectrum of corporations and organizations in the computer and information processing industry. Members are: Adobe Systems, Apple, Google, Government of Bangladesh, Government of India, IBM, Microsoft, Monotype Imaging, Sultanate of Oman MARA, Oracle, SAP, Tamil Virtual University, The University of California (Berkeley), Yahoo!, plus well over a hundred Associate, Liaison, and Individual members.

For more information, please contact the Unicode Consortium http://www.unicode.org/contacts.html.

Unicode Emoji (UTR #51) Draft Available

The draft of the UTR #51, Unicode Emoji technical report has been advanced to Draft status, and updated as follows:

• refined the selection factors used to weigh new emoji proposals
• reduced the set of recommended characters
• reduced the set of characters that the emoji modifiers can affect (for diversity)
• removed one of the candidate Unicode 8.0 characters
• updated the charts to add the candidate Unicode 8.0 emoji, such as U+1F910 ZIPPER-MOUTH FACE
• enhanced the text

Feedback is welcome through April 27, 2015. For further information and details about how to provide feedback, please see Public Review Issue #293.

1,250 Recommended Current Emoji

The new draft of Unicode Emoji identifies a set of about 1,250 current emoji as recommended for Unicode 7.0 implementations. The Consortium would appreciate feedback on this set of characters. To make review easier, explicit lists of these characters have been added to Section 3.

The Media section of the report has been moved to a new expanded page, unicode.org/press/emoji.html, and now includes links to video of the recent Emoji keynote. The selection factors for new emoji have also been extended.

New Unicode Emoji draft, available for review

The Unicode Consortium has released the draft “Unicode Emoji” document, whose main goal is to help improve the interoperability of emoji characters across implementations by providing guidelines and data.

This draft document also includes a section on Diversity, with a mechanism using 5 new proposed characters to provide a variety of skin tones for existing emoji characters.



The document is in “Proposed Draft” state, and made available for public review and comment.