Unicode has completely separate rules for characters and emojis. Characters and scripts generally need solid documentation that they are real existing symbols.

Unicode has completely separate rules for characters and emojis. Characters and scripts generally need solid documentation that they are real existing symbols. Emojis, on the other hand, are accepted largely on how likely they are to be used. My impression is that the Unicode committee would prefer to deal with scripts and characters, but they got stuck with emojis for historical reasons and that's what most people care about. Refs: https://www.unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html https://www.unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html http://www.unicode.org/pending/proposals.html http://www.unicode.org/pending/proposals.html