Windows 11 Now Supports Emoji 16.0
Late last week, Microsoft launched a new update for Windows 11, introducing support for 2024's Emoji 16.0 recommendations in both the 2D and 3D versions of the vendor's Fluent emoji design set.
Late last week, Microsoft launched a new update for Windows 11, introducing support for 2024's Emoji 16.0 recommendations in both the 2D and 3D versions of the vendor's Fluent emoji design set.
As shown above and below, a total of 7 emojis have been added to the Fluent emoji design set.
These new emojis are as follows:
All of these new additions have been drawn from the Unicode's Emoji 16.0 list of recommendations. One emoji from Emoji 16.0 is missing, however: the 🇨🇶 Flag: Sark emoji.
Microsoft has historically opted not to support any geographic flag emoji, and the 🇨🇶 Flag: Sark is no different.
🎨 Two Fluent sets?
This is the first update to Microsoft's two connected emoji sets since the summer of 2024, when a Windows 23H2 11 update (KB5039302 - OS Builds 22621.3810 and 22631.3810) introduced support for 2023's Emoji 15.1 recommendations to the Fluent emoji set.
However, since this 2024 update, the once context-specific 3D version of the Fluent emoji set has become the de facto emoji design set for updated Windows devices, replacing the 2D version in the vast majority of applications such as web browsers and the Microsoft Office Suite.
This is thanks to an expansion of support for Microsoft's COLRv1 color font format across further apps and platforms, as was promised previously by Microsoft in 2023:
With the update of our color font format to COLRv1, Windows is now able to display richer emoji with a 3D like appearance with support coming soon to some apps and browsers. These emoji use gradients to bring the design style that our customers have been asking for. The new emoji will bring more expression to your communications.
When the Fluent emoji set was first revealed ahead of World Emoji Day 2021, it was shown to have the 3D designs that have been broadly implemented since early 2025.
However, when the Fluent set finally made its debut within Windows devices, the 3D incarnation was only available within select platforms such as Microsoft Teams, with all other applications rendering the Fluent with previously unseen 2D designs. You can learn more about this here.
⏯️ Changed & Not Changed
In both design sets, the 💒 Wedding emoji has been updated to show a new structure with heart-shaped stained glass but without a Latin cross.
Additionally, several smiley emojis within the 3D set have had their eyes subtly reworked to match changes that had been made within the 2D set in late 2023.
However, within the 2D Fluent set, an oddity we had expected to be addressed persists.
Since late 2023, the designs of the various 🧏♂️ Deaf Man and 🧏♀️ Deaf Woman emojis were swapped, with 🧏♂️ Deaf Man rendered with the design of 🧏♀️ Deaf Woman and vice versa.
This bug is not emulated within the 3D Fluent emoji design set, but it remains a part of the 2D set despite being updated to support Emoji 16.0.
💻 Release
This update to Windows 11 24H2 (KB5064081 - OS Build 26100.5074) is now available as a free update for Windows 11 users in select regions, with global rollout continuing over the next few weeks and months.
Those using Windows Insider builds would have already received Emoji 16.0 support at various stages over the past few years, varying based on their Windows Insider channel settings.