Android 16 DP2 has some new emoji to try out

Google has just shipped the second developer preview of Android 16, and it delivers a whole host of new developer features. On the user side, though, there don’t appear to be a lot of new changes visible in DP2, at least not as far as we can tell. However, there’s at least one fun new feature we spotted while digging through the update: support for the 7 new emoji from Unicode 16.0.

Android 16 DP2 includes an updated emoji font file with 7 new emoji that are part of Unicode 16.0. Unicode, if you aren’t aware, is the universal text encoding standard that assigns unique numbers to every character, symbol, and script used in written communication. It’s what allows computers — even those running different operating systems — to understand and display text in virtually any language. Emoji like the melting face and upside-down smile are also codified in the Unicode standard, enabling them to be shared between devices running different operating systems or browsers.

Every so often, the Unicode Consortium adds new emoji to the Unicode standard, which are released alongside other updates to the standard. Unicode 16.0, for example, adds support for the following 7 emoji, as highlighted by Emojipedia:

• Face with Bags Under Eyes
• Fingerprint
• Leafless Tree
• Root Vegetable
• Harp
• Shovel
• Splatter

If you try to view that Emojipedia page and your device doesn’t support Unicode 16.0, all you’ll see are empty boxes instead of emoji. If you do actually see emoji, though, then your device does support the latest set of emoji. This is the case on my Pixel 9 Pro running Android 16 DP2, but it’s not the case on my Pixel 7 Pro running Android 15 QPR2 Beta 2.

Google is usually pretty quick to support new versions of the Unicode standard, so hopefully the company doesn’t take long to add support for the 2025 emoji lineup, which is set to include a whopping 164 new emoji.