Samsung's Android software layer One UI now supports the latest emojis, for any devices setup to receive One UI version 2.5.

Alongside 116 brand new emojis, this update includes a sizable number of design changes, with many of these being new gender neutral designs for previously-released people emojis.

Above: all the new emojis within Samsung One UI 2.5. Image: Samsung / Emojipedia composite.

All of the 116 new emojis in One UI 2.5 are based on Emoji 13.0.^[1]

Furthermore, nearly a thousand previously released emojis have had their designs updated in One UI 2.5. A significant proportion of these changes are due to gender inclusive designs being used where emojis don't specify a gender.

Above: Gender neutral emojis in Samsung One UI 2.5. Image: Samsung / Emojipedia composite.

The need to choose a specific gender when sending an emoji such as a 👮 Police Officer or 🏄 Person Surfing is no longer a requirement, while for gendered variations such as 👮‍♀️ Woman Police Officer and 🏄‍♂️ Man Surfing remain options. This change follows other major vendors, who began to introduce similar gender neutral designs in the fall^[2] of 2019.

Previous Samsung One UI versions displayed non-gender-specifying using either the 👨 Man or (more often than not) the 👩 Woman variant.^[3]

Following this update Samsung's human emojis follow the same gender-based color pattern as Google and Twitter: purple for the 👩 Woman, orange for gender neutral 🧑 Person, and blue for the 👨 Man emojis.

🆕 New

One UI 2.5 includes two new smiley emojis and a single new gesture emoji, namely 🥲 Smiling Face with Tear, 🥸 Disguised Face, and 🤌 Pinched Fingers. As with all gesture emojis on Samsung devices^[4], 🤌 Pinched Fingers supports skin tone modifiers.

Also included in One UI 2.5 are two new anatomy-based emojis, 🫀 Anatomical Heart and a pair of 🫁 Lungs.

There are eight new people emojis introduced in this update, all with skin tone support bar the abstracted 🫂 People Hugging (as per Unicode's recommendation).

• 🥷 Ninja
• 🤵‍♂️ Man in Tuxedo^[5]
• 🤵‍♀️ Woman in Tuxedo
• 👰‍♂️ Man with Veil
• 👰‍♀️ Woman with Veil^[6]
• 👩‍🍼 Woman Feeding Baby
• 👨‍🍼 Man Feeding Baby
• 🧑‍🍼 Person Feeding Baby
• 🧑‍🎄 Mx Claus
• 🫂 People Hugging

There are 12 new animal emojis in One UI 2.5, including the ZWJ sequence 🐈‍⬛ Black Cat and 🐻‍❄️ Polar Bear emojis.

• 🐈‍⬛ Black Cat
• 🦬 Bison
• 🦣 Mammoth
• 🦫 Beaver
• 🐻‍❄️ Polar Bear
• 🦤 Dodo
• 🪶 Feather
• 🦭 Seal
• 🪲 Beetle
• 🪳 Cockroach
• 🪰 Fly
• 🪱 Worm

There are eight new food and drink emojis, including the popular 🧋 Bubble Tea emoji.

• 🫐 Blueberries
• 🫒 Olive
• 🫑 Bell Pepper
• 🫓 Flatbread
• 🫔 Tamale
• 🫕 Fondue
• 🫖 Teapot
• 🧋 Bubble Tea

The remaining new emojis included in One UI 2.5 can be placed within the broad categories of nature, objects, and symbols. Amongst these are a 🪅 Piñata, a 🪃 Boomerang, and the 🏳️‍⚧️ Transgender Flag

• 🪴 Potted Plant
• 🪨 Rock
• 🪵 Wood
• 🛖 Hut
• 🛻 Pickup Truck
• 🛼 Roller Skate
• 🪄 Magic Wand
• 🪅 Piñata
• 🪆 Nesting Dolls
• 🪡 Sewing Needle
• 🪢 Knot
• 🩴 Thong Sandal
• 🪖 Military Helmet
• 🪗 Accordion
• 🪘 Long Drum
• 🪙 Coin
• 🪃 Boomerang
• 🪚 Carpentry Saw
• 🪛 Screwdriver
• 🪝 Hook
• 🪜 Ladder
• 🛗 Elevator
• 🪞 Mirror
• 🪟 Window
• 🪠 Plunger
• 🪤 Mouse Trap
• 🪣 Bucket
• 🪥 Toothbrush
• 🪦 Headstone
• 🪧 Placard
• 🏳️‍⚧️ Transgender Flag

🆙 Changed

🤣 Rolling on the Floor Laughing has a bigger open-mouthed smile and larger tears of joy.

🤤 Drooling Face has had the placement of its eyes and eyebrows modified.

🧐 Face with Monocle now has its mouth slightly open and has thicker eyebrows contorted in a new fashion.

😵 Dizzy Face has had its eyebrows inverted, with its X-shaped eyes now closer together.

😖 Confounded Face has had its pained mouth and eyes more closely crunched together.

👰 Person With Veil has a new gender-inclusive appearance, making way for the new gender-specific options in this release.

🤵 Person in Tuxedo has a new gender-inclusive appearance, making way for the new gender-specific options in this release.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People Holding Hands now has both gender neutral individuals wearing orange instead of green.

🦸‍♀️ Woman Superhero's costume now has a purple cape and mask, echoing the purple used for other 👩 Woman emojis within the set.

👩🏼‍🦱 Woman: Medium-Light Skin Tone, Curly Hair now has dark blond hair, matching other emojis using this skin tone within the set.

👪 Family now displays two gender neutral adults and one gender neutral 🧒 Child.

🤼 People Wrestling now features two non-gender-specific people both wearing orange.^[7]

💑 Couple with Heart now displays two gender neutral people instead of a 👩 Woman and 👨 Man.

👆 Input

All 116 new emoji designs are accessible via the latest version of the Samsung emoji keyboard.^[8]

When using the Samsung emoji keyboard, all three gender options are displayed upfront in the keyboard for all people emojis. This is distinct from Google Gboard keyboard, where only the gender neutral designs are shown initially and gender-specific variants can be accessed by pressing and holding down on a specific gender neutral emoji.

Above: various people emojis as displayed in the Samsung emoji keyboard in One UI 2.5.

Users are also able to access skin tone variants of 🤝 Handshake and the three versions of 👯 People with Bunny Ears. These skin tone options are not currently recommended for general interchange (RGI) by Unicode.

Above: the skin tone options for the 🤝 Handshake emoji in One UI 2.5. Photo: Keith Broni / Emojipedia.org

Above: the skin tone options for the 👯 People with Bunny Ears emoji in One UI 2.5. Photo: Keith Broni / Emojipedia.org

There is an issue with the 👪 Family emoji, however. Despite the 👪 Family design being updated to display gender neutral individuals, the non-RGI skin tone modifier versions of this emoji were not updated in the same way.

Above: the non-RGI 👪 Family emoji skin tone options still display with gendered designs. Photo: Keith Broni / Emojipedia.org

🔁 Two Androids

Samsung is now the only Android vendor to ship phones using its own custom emoji font that differs from the emoji set provided by Google.

In past years, companies such as LG and HTC provided their own emoji sets, but these have since been abandoned.

For phones running Android, the rule is now that the emojis shown will be from Google, unless the phone is a Samsung.

Above: Samsung emojis are glossier and sometimes more detailed than those from Google. Images: Samsung, Google / Emojipedia composite.

The caveat here being that many apps on Android also use their own custom emoji designs, regardless of whether run on Samsung or not. These include Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

📶 Release

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra are the first Samsung devices to include One UI 2.5 out of the box, shipping to users from August 21, 2020.

Rollout of One UI 2.5 varies by device and region, with additional Samsung phones receiving this update throughout September and October 2020.

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