Samsung One UI 1.5 Emoji Changelog

Samsung One UI 1.5 Emoji Changelog

Today Samsung has begun shipping its new Galaxy Note 10 device, featuring an emoji keyboard with yawning face, white heart, pinching hand and other new emoji designs.

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A selection of the new emoji designs featured in Samsung One UI 1.5.

A total of 215 new emojis have been introduced in Samsung One UI 1.5, a new software update featured on the Galaxy Note 10[1]. Other eligible Samsung devices are expected to be offered a Samsung One UI 1.5 update over the coming weeks and months. Each of the new emojis originate from Unicode's recent Emoji 12.0 release[2].

Samsung One UI 1.5, shows most new emojis on the emoji keyboard, with a few exceptions this time around.

While accessing new emojis on the emoji keyboard might be considered a standard feature, this cannot be taken for granted on Samsung devices: last year's Samsung Experience 9.5 introduced support for new emojis but didn't include any way to input them on the default emoji keyboard.

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Above: The emoji keyboard on Galaxy Note 10, featuring various new ๐Ÿ‘ญ Women Holding Hands designs. Photo: Jeremy Burge / Emojipedia.

๐Ÿ†• New

As noted in previous changelogs, while Emoji 12.0 features new emojis across all categories, there are three major themes within this emoji update: people holding hands with various skin tone options, an expanded selection of colorful shapes (including hearts), and an expanded suite of accessibility options.

A number of new emojis are displayed with a gender-neutral appearance when no gender is defined.[3]

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The new ๐Ÿง Deaf Person emoji has a unique design instead of emulating the either ๐Ÿงโ€โ™‚๏ธ Deaf Man or ๐Ÿงโ€โ™€๏ธ Deaf Woman[4].

Such emulation has historically been the design convention for most non-gender-specific Samsung designs, including ๐Ÿ‘ฎ Police Officer (which displays as ๐Ÿ‘ฎโ€โ™‚๏ธ Man Police Officer), ๐Ÿง› Vampire (displays as ๐Ÿง›โ€โ™€๏ธ Woman Vampire), and ๐Ÿ’† Person Getting Massage (displays as ๐Ÿ’†โ€โ™€๏ธ Woman Getting Massage).

Despite the introduction of some new gender neutral designs (and Google's impending redesigns of non-gender-specifying emojis) Samsung One UI 1.5 continues to display previously implemented people as a gender-specific equivalent.

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Above: the ๐Ÿ‘ฉ Woman, gender-neutral and ๐Ÿ‘จ Man versions of ๐Ÿง Deaf Person, ๐Ÿง Person Standing, ๐Ÿ‘ฎ Police Officer, and ๐Ÿ’† Person Getting Massage as they appear in Samsung One UI 1.5.

People Holding Hands

71 new emojis in Samsung One UI 1.5 show two people holding hands, most of which involved the use of two different skin tone modifiers.[2:1]

These new designs are created using ZWJ Sequence combinations of ๐Ÿ‘จ Man and ๐Ÿ‘ฉ Woman emojis, or two non-gender-specific ๐Ÿง‘ Person emojis.[5]

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All of the various gender-neutral ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿคโ€๐Ÿง‘ People Holding Hands combinations feature both individuals clad in green, akin to the new gender-neutral ๐Ÿง Person Standing and ๐ŸงŽ Person Kneeling designs. However, in the versions of ๐Ÿ‘ฌ Men Holding Hands the second man is also glad in green despite having a specified gender identity.[5:1]

Colored Shapes

There are 14 new shape emojis introduced in Samsung One UI 1.5, meaning that emoji hearts, circles and squares are now all available on Samsung devices in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black and brown.

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Accessibility

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The new accessibility emojis in Samsung One UI 1.5 are as follows:

There are also two accessibility-orientated emojis within the animal category: ๐Ÿฆฎ Guide Dog and ๐Ÿ•โ€๐Ÿฆบ Service Dog. They join ๐Ÿฆฉ Flamingo and ๐Ÿฆจ Skunk, amongst others.

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Above: the eight new animal emoji designs as they appear in Samsung One UI 1.5.

The popular food and drink category has also had eight new emojis introduced, such as ๐Ÿง† Falafel and ๐ŸงŠ Ice Cube.

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Above: the new Emoji 12.0 food and drink emojis in Samsung One UI 1.5.

Further new emojis introduced in Samsung One UI 1.5 include ๐Ÿ›• Hindu Temple, ๐Ÿช‚ Parachute, ๐Ÿฅป Sari, ๐Ÿฉฐ Ballet Shoes, and ๐Ÿฉธ Drop of Blood. The full list of new designs can be viewed here.

๐Ÿ†™ Changed

A total of 53 previously-released emoji designs have been changed in Samsung One UI 1.5, with several noteworthy changes detailed below.

๐Ÿ‘ฏ People With Bunny Ears now displays two women clad in black dresses and bunny ears, as opposed to a single woman wearing white bunny ears. This change brings Samsung's designs of this emoji in line with that of other major vendors, removing an long-standing instance of design fragmentation.[6]

Emojipedia-Samsung-One-UI-1.5-Emoji-Changelog-Comparison-Women-With-Bunny-Ears

๐Ÿฆ Gorilla now displays as the full ape instead of just its head.[7]

Emojipedia-Samsung-One-UI-1.5-Emoji-Changelog-Comparison-Gorilla

๐Ÿ“ Rooster now features brown feathers and large green tail plumage.

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๐Ÿงด Lotion Bottle is now cream-colored with a pump dispenser.

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๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ท Flag of Costa Rica had removed the national coat of arms.

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๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ต Flag of Nepal is now its correct double-pennon shape.

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๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ช Flag of Peru now longer features Peru's coat of arms, as per the design of all other major vendors.

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โธ Unchanged

Despite the changes listed above, Samsung emoji update has come without Samsung addressing one of its most persistent but least visible instances of emoji design fragmentation.

In Samsung One UI 1.5, the ๐Ÿ‡บ Regional Indicator Symbol Letter U emoji continues to display a capital "V" (instead of U), while the ๐Ÿ‡ป Regional Indicator Symbol Letter V emoji continues display a "U" (instead of V).

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Above: ๐Ÿ‡บ Regional Indicator Symbol Letter U (top) and ๐Ÿ‡ป Regional Indicator Symbol Letter V (bottom) as they are displayed across a series of major vendors' emoji sets.

Additionally, the ๐Ÿ‘๏ธโ€๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ Eye in Speech Bubble emoji remains absent in Samsung One UI 1.5, having been removed from Samsung's emoji set in 2018.

๐Ÿ“ถ Release

The Galaxy Note 10 is the first Samsung device to be shipped with Samsung One UI 1.5 out of the box.

As with previous Samsung updates, it is expected that Samsung One UI 1.5 will be slowly rolled out to additional Samsung devices over the next weeks and months, with its availability will vary by location, device and mobile phone carrier. However, many Samsung devices may not ever receive the Samsung One UI 1.5 update.

Users are advised to get in touch with Samsung or their carrier to see if or when they plan to support this update on their own device.


  1. One UI is the new name for the software that Samsung places on its Android devices to give them a different look and functionality to Google's stock Android. This adds or replaces various apps and parts of the operating system, including the emoji keyboard and emoji font. This was previously known as Samsung Experience, and before that, Samsung TouchWiz. โ†ฉ๏ธŽ

  2. Despite only being officially recommended for general interchange (RGI) in Emoji 12.0, Samsung devices have supported single-skin-tone variants of ๐Ÿ‘ญ Women Holding Hands, ๐Ÿ‘ฌ Men Holding Hands, and ๐Ÿ‘ซ Woman and Man Holding Hands since 2017. Therefore while Emoji 12.0 recommended a total of 230 new emoji designs, only 215 of these are completely new to Samsung devices. โ†ฉ๏ธŽ โ†ฉ๏ธŽ

  3. Emojis explicitly focused on gender neutrality include ๐Ÿง’ Child, ๐Ÿง‘ Person, and ๐Ÿง“ Older Person. โ†ฉ๏ธŽ

  4. The first movement in this direction came in Samsung Experience 9.5, where Emoji 11.0's ๐Ÿฆธ Superhero and ๐Ÿฆน Supervillain were introduced with their own gender-neutral designs distinct from their man and woman counterparts. โ†ฉ๏ธŽ

  5. Unicode officially only recommends two people paired, or combinations of women and men: you cannot therefore combine the ๐Ÿง‘ Person emoji with either ๐Ÿ‘จ Man or ๐Ÿ‘ฉ Woman to make a hand-holding emoji on Samsung devices. Also - for some reason, the people holding hands (without a gender specified) aren't shown on the emoji keyboard, while they are supported. The same goes for other gender neutral emojis. โ†ฉ๏ธŽ โ†ฉ๏ธŽ

  6. While many vendors used to display a single person for this emoji, Samsung remained the last major holdout using that style. โ†ฉ๏ธŽ

  7. In making this change, Samsung's version of ๐Ÿฆ Gorilla now appears similar to that of Apple, Microsoft, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Google and Twitter's versions just display the gorilla's head, as Samsung's did previously. โ†ฉ๏ธŽ