Pitching for a new emoji? This is how you submit a proposal to Unicode

Emojis are a ubiquitous way to communicate in this day and age, but you've probably wondered — how do emojis make their way to your phone's keyboard?

Recently there has been a push for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to be included as emoji (yes please!) as well as petitions for redhead emoji, dumpling emoji and brands trying to crash the party.

While a petition is nice step towards raising awareness, the ultimate decision on what is accepted as a new emoji rests with the Unicode Consortium. 

It's a not-for-profit organisation that standardises letters and characters on computers, a system which is called Unicode. Fundamentally, Unicode ensures that other computers can see each other's characters, ensuring consistency and avoiding those pesky white boxes you see instead of text. Read more...