Unicode Standard

Emoji Ecosystem

The complete character encoding system maintained by the Unicode Consortium, defining characters, properties, algorithms, and encoding forms.

The Unicode Standard is far more than just a list of characters. It includes character properties (is it a letter? a digit? right-to-left?), algorithms (bidirectional text, normalization, collation), and encoding forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32).

The standard is published as a book ("The Unicode Standard") and maintained as an online database. New versions are released annually, typically adding new scripts, characters, and emoji.

For emoji specifically, the Unicode Standard works with UTS#51 to define all aspects of emoji encoding, presentation, and behavior.

Related Terms

Unicode Unicode
Universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique number to every character across all writing systems and symbol sets, including emoji. Unicode Consortium Unicode Consortium
The non-profit organization that develops and maintains the Unicode Standard, including the process for adding new emoji. Unicode Technical Standard #51 (UTS#51) Unicode Technical Standard #51 (UTS#51)
The Unicode specification that defines how emoji work — including emoji properties, sequences, presentation, and ordering.

Related Tools

🔢 Unicode Lookup Unicode Lookup
Enter a codepoint like U+1F600 and get the emoji, encoding details, UTF-8/16 bytes, and HTML entities. 📊 Emoji Stats Emoji Stats
Explore statistics about the Unicode emoji set — category distribution, version growth, type breakdown.

Related Stories

Emoji Shortcode Finder: Slack, Discord, GitHub Shortcodes
Find emoji shortcodes for Slack, Discord, and GitHub. Look up any emoji's shortcode across platforms with the EmojiFYI Shortcode Finder tool.
Unicode Emoji Properties: Extended_Pictographic, Emoji_Presentation, and More
A developer's guide to Unicode emoji properties: what Extended_Pictographic, Emoji_Presentation, Emoji_Modifier, and Emoji_Component mean in practice.
Top 50 Most Used Emojis in 2025
The definitive list of the 50 most used emojis in 2025, ranked by global usage frequency with meanings and trends explained.
Text vs Emoji Presentation Selectors: VS15 (U+FE0E) and VS16 (U+FE0F)
How Unicode variation selectors VS15 and VS16 control text vs emoji presentation — with code examples for detection and normalization.
Emoji Sequence Analyzer: Decode ZWJ, Skin Tones, and Keycaps
Learn how to use EmojiFYI's Sequence Analyzer to break down ZWJ sequences, skin tone modifiers, keycap sequences, and flag emojis into their Unicode components.
New Emojis 2024: Every Emoji Added in Emoji 15.1 and 16.0
Complete list of every new emoji added in 2024. Discover all new emojis from Emoji 15.1 and 16.0 including phoenix, lime, face with bags, and more.