Last week Unicode, the international organization that standardizes emojis and all other digital characters, launched a brand new website for its Adopt-A-Character program.
The Adopt-A-Character program was first launched in 2015 and is one of the primary means through which Unicode supports its work alongside its various membership options.
Unicode thanks Frances Coronel, our newest Gold Sponsor! #UnicodeSponsor https://t.co/onLsdkfEFv pic.twitter.com/0nB9Hc29UM
— The Unicode Consortium (@unicode) January 31, 2023
Unicode thanks Patricia Houden, our newest Silver Sponsor! #UnicodeSponsor https://t.co/BnPq231Ud5 pic.twitter.com/HebeL8jaUA
— The Unicode Consortium (@unicode) January 3, 2023
Unicode thanks Kyle Rose, our newest Bronze Sponsor! #UnicodeSponsor https://t.co/RLEC9j2RHs pic.twitter.com/iZbFufpSAf
— The Unicode Consortium (@unicode) January 17, 2023
Each adoption helps Unicode's goal to support the world's languages be encoded digitally. As noted by Unicode in their announcement for the new site:
This has included preserving historical scripts such as Egyptian hieroglyphics and providing better language support for digitally disadvantaged and under-resourced languages such as Hanifi Rohingya used in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Roughly 150,000 different characters are available for adoption (149,186 to be exact), including all 3,664 emojis that have been recommended up to last year's Emoji 15.0.
This means that you're able to adopt the likes of the 🫠 Melting Face, 🫶 Heart Hands, and 🥹 Face Holding Back Tears across three different levels: limited gold and silver levels (which can be obtained on a first-come-first-served basis), as well as an unlimited bronze level - all of which could be a unique gift for 💘 Valentine’s Day or any other occasion.
Read about each of the adoption levels here.
Additionally, if all are successfully approved, there'll be roughly another 500 new emojis eligible for adoption in September of this year once Emoji 15.1 has been added. Current candidates include a Phoenix Bird, a Lime, a Head Shaking Vertically, and several hundred new emoji sequences based on emoji directionality.
You can read more about the Emoji 15.1 provisional candidates here.