What you need to know
- Samsung's One UI 5 update includes support for all emojis in Unicode 15.
- The update has also added support for 107 emojis from last year's Emoji 14.0 release.
- This makes Samsung the first to bring the latest batch of emoji to eligible Galaxy phone users.
Samsung used to lag behind other tech giants when it comes to rolling out support for the latest emojis, but that changes now with the release of One UI 5. All Unicode 15 emojis are making their way to the Galaxy S22 series.
According to Emojipedia, all 31 recommendations from Emoji 15 are now available to many of the best Samsung phones, including the vanilla Galaxy S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra. Furthermore, One UI 5 supports 107 of the 138 Emoji recommendations introduced last year.
While it took a year for the South Korean tech giant to bring support for last year's emoji batch, this is a surprising move for Samsung. That's because it's the first company to roll out support for Emoji 15, beating the likes of Google and Apple to the punch. The search giant announced in September that the new Emoji 15.0 update would arrive on Android phones in December as part of the Android quarterly release.
The latest One UI update gives you access to many fun emoji from last year's release, such as the melting face and the heart hands, and the new ones, like the shaking face and the pink heart. There are also 20 new skin tone modifier variations of the Handshake emoji based on recommendations from the 2021 list.
It's a strong indication of Samsung's efforts to stay ahead of the curve in terms of software updates. Because Android 13 won't bring support for the latest batch of emoji until December, Google's Pixel phones will miss out on the fun for a few months.
While Google has released an update to its Noto Emoji font file, the official release will not occur for several weeks. For the time being, Samsung is the only OEM to bring the latest emojis to Android smartphones.
In addition to the emojis mentioned above, Unicode 15 includes animal recommendations such as a donkey, moose, goose, and jellyfish. The full list of new emojis can be found here.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 remains a strong flagship device. While the Galaxy S22 is the smallest in the S22 series lineup, it delivers with its fantastic AMOLED display, powerful 50MP camera, and the upcoming addition of One UI 5.
