What Is the Latest Unicode Emoji Version? 🔢
This question gets confusing because there are two version numbers in play, published by the same organisation, that mean different things — and right now they happen to carry the same digits. Here's what each one actually refers to, and which one you want when you ask "what's the newest emoji version?"
Unicode version vs emoji version
The Unicode Standard is the character encoding that covers every written script, symbol and sign a computer can display — Latin letters, Devanagari, mathematical operators, and emoji all live inside it. Its most recent released version is Unicode 17.0.0, from 2025, following Unicode 16.0.0 (2024) and Unicode 15.1.0 (2023).[2]
The emoji version is a separate, narrower release that covers only the emoji set and the rules for displaying it. Unicode publishes its own chart of these, and the newest entry there is Emoji v17.0 (2025), carrying 163 emoji.[1]
So both answers to "what's the latest version" are currently 17.0 — but they're counting different things. If someone tells you Unicode 18.0 adds 13,047 new characters, that's the whole standard talking, not the emoji set.[3]
What's in Emoji 17.0
Emojipedia records that "a total of 163 new emojis were approved by Unicode on September 9 2025 as part of Emoji 17.0."[4] That figure matches Unicode's own emoji version chart, which lists 163 against v17.0.[1]
Being approved is not the same as being on your phone, though. The major platforms shipped Emoji 17.0 in March 2026: Apple in iOS 26.4, Google in Android 16 QPR3, Samsung in One UI 8.5, and WhatsApp for Android — with Google's font files having become available back in September 2025. JoyPixels followed in June 2026 and OpenMoji in April 2026.[4]
If your keyboard doesn't show them yet, that gap — not the version number — is usually why. We break the rollout down device by device in our guide to when new emojis come out.
What's next: Unicode 18.0 and Emoji 18.0
Unicode opened the Unicode 18.0 beta review on 26 May 2026, running until 7 July 2026. The announcement states that 13,047 new characters will be added, "bringing the total number of encoded characters in Unicode 18.0 to 172,848," and that the release includes nine new emoji characters. Unicode said the standard would be released later that year.[3]
Emojipedia's draft list for 2026/2027 counts 19 draft emoji — those nine new emoji concepts plus ten skin tone modifier variants — with final approval expected in September 2026. Its wording is worth keeping in mind: "Both Unicode 18.0 and Emoji 18.0 remain in draft form and are therefore subject to change."[5] If all 19 are approved, the total count of Unicode-recommended emoji would reach 3,972.[6]
The last few versions at a glance
Which version does my phone have?
There's no single answer, because the emoji version your device supports depends on its software, not on what Unicode has published. The vendor has to draw the artwork and ship it in an update first. That's why Emoji 17.0 was approved in September 2025 but only reached Apple, Google, Samsung and WhatsApp in March 2026.[4]
The practical test is simply to look: if the emoji from the newest set render as characters rather than empty boxes, your device has that version. You can check what your device draws against the full current set with our emoji search engine.
💬 EmojiCircle's Take
The number people usually want is the emoji version, not the Unicode Standard version — and today
that's Emoji 17.0. Emoji 18.0 gets written about a lot for something that hasn't been
approved yet, so if you're citing a figure for the newest emoji, 163 from September 2025 is the safe one
until Unicode signs off in September 2026.
Want the actual characters rather than the version numbers?
Browse the full emoji catalog
and copy anything you like.
Sources
- Unicode — Emoji Counts, v17.0 (emoji version chart). Accessed 7 August 2026.
- Unicode — Enumerated Versions of The Unicode Standard. Accessed 7 August 2026.
- Unicode — Unicode 18.0 Beta Review Opens for Feedback, 26 May 2026.
- Emojipedia — The Most Popular New Emoji of 2026 Is…, 13 July 2026.
- Emojipedia — Draft Emoji List for 2026/2027, 8 January 2026.
- Emojipedia — What's New On World Emoji Day 2026, 17 July 2026.
- Unicode — Jennifer Daniel, Why do some new emoji look familiar?, 14 July 2026.
Explore More Emojis
See exactly what's in the current batch in our new emojis 2025 & 2026 guide, find out when each platform shipped them, or read how Unicode decides what becomes an emoji. You can also walk the whole emoji timeline from 1988 to 2026, check what changed on WhatsApp, or browse Smileys and Symbols.