Want to add a new emoji? Well, there’s a process

We have a smiling pile of poop. What about one that’s sad? There’s a loaf of bread and a croissant. But where’s the sliced bagel? These are the kinds of questions that trigger heated debates and verbal bomb tossing – or at least memos with bursts of capital letters – among members of the group burdened with deciding which new emojis make it onto our phones and computer screens each year. And now more people are getting in on the act. The Unicode Consortium is tasked with setting the global standard for the icons. It’s a heady responsibility and it can take years from inspiration (“Hey, why isn’t there a dumpling?”) to a new symbol being added to our phones. Want to add your own? It’s too late for this year, but you can submit one for 2019. Your proposal to Unicode must meet strict guidelines: no corporate logos, actual people (living or dead), or deities. The proposal must include your emoji’s expected usage level and whether it can be used as an archetype, a metaphor for a symbol (a pig face, for example, can mean more than the face of a pig and represent gluttony). Good luck!

Thanks largely to author Jennifer 8. Lee's efforts, the dumpling emoji was added to the Unicode Standard in 2017.