With the recent release of the One UI 5.0 update for the Galaxy S22 series, Samsung has become the first — and for now, the only — smartphone manufacturer to offer support for Unicode 15 emojis. This is but one of the pleasant surprises One UI 5.0 has in store for Galaxy phone users.
Back in September, Google announced that the new Unicode 15 emojis would be added to AOSP (Android Open Source Project) “in the coming weeks.” At the same time, Google confirmed that Unicode 15 emoji support is coming to Android in December. Samsung couldn't wait any longer, so it took matters into its own hands.
Android 13 doesn't yet support Unicode 15 emojis, but One UI 5.0 does
Because Google plans to add support for Unicode 15 emojis later this year, Android 13 doesn't yet support them. As of this writing, no Android smartphones except for the Galaxy S22, the Galaxy S22+, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra have this feature. They're missing from the Pixel line, and likewise, they're not available for iPhones, either.
Credit where credit is due, Unicode 15 emoji support comes to the Galaxy S22 series thanks to Samsung's own efforts to push the feature out through its latest One UI 5.0 update ahead of Google. As of now, Samsung is the only smartphone manufacturer in the world to offer Unicode 15 emojis. Furthermore, Unicode 14 support was also added with the new firmware update.
Emojipedia confirms that the One UI 5.0 update from Samsung includes a total of 138 new emojis. 107 of these emojis are from Unicode 14 — which Samsung didn't support up until One UI 5.0. 31 emojis come from the latest Unicode 15 collection.
The latter includes new emojis such as a plain pink heart and a shaking face; various animals like a donkey, a moose, a goose, and a jellyfish; a pea pod, ginger, a folding hand fan, a hair pick, maracas, the pushing hand emoji, and more.
So far, Samsung has released One UI 5.0 for the Galaxy S22 series, but the company is working hard to bring the update to dozens of other Galaxy phones and tablets.
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