TL;DR
- Android 16 QPR3 is set to introduce support for the newly released Unicode 17.0 standard and its emoji.
- The update includes 163 new characters, featuring additions like a distorted face, fight cloud, and orca.
- You can view these new emoji right now if you install the Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1 on a compatible Pixel.
Emoji play a core role in how people communicate online, allowing us to express ourselves with playful images and symbols rather than just text. New emoji arrive each year to expand our expressive range, and to ensure they appear correctly on everyone’s device, regardless of the platform, they are codified in the Unicode standard. The latest version — Unicode 17.0 — dropped on September 9, 2025, introducing over 160 new characters. While the stable release of Android doesn’t support them yet, that is set to change with next year’s third quarterly release of Android 16.
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