Snapchat, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and Slack all use emoji-replacement images on Android in a trend started by Twitter with Twemoji which was released when the most popular browser on Windows (Chrome) didn't include emoji support.

With numbers like that, it's no wonder so many apps are providing their own custom emoji support these days. Google's own statistics on Android version share show worse results with under 1% using Android 7.0 Nougat. Just 4% of Android users are using any variation of 7.x Nougat (released in August-September 2016), resulting in 96 out of 100 Android users not seeing the latest emojis: Looking at Emojipedia statistics for the start of 2017, the lack of Android users running any new version is stark.Ībove: Emojipedia visitor stats for January 2017. These aren't old phones not getting updates: they're brand new phones running an out of date OS. 'Marshmallow isn't in itself bad, but it's no longer either the latest or greatest from Google.' Vlad Savov reported in September : most phones at IFA (large tech show in Europe) were running a year-old version of Android. This system should work well, but the weak link is relying on manufacturers to provide updates in a timely manner.

New emojis are bundled with system updates for iOS and Android, as emoji fonts and relevant Unicode support is provided at an OS level. The rest of the new emojis came months later in iOS 10.2 in December 2016. This was some timely updating from Google, especially compared to previous years.Ībove: Unicode 9 emojis as shown on Android Nougat.īy contrast, iOS didn't include any new emoji updates until iOS 10 in September. Unicode 9 support was first added to Android 7.0 in August, followed by genders and professions which arrived with 7.1 in October 2016. Yet the vast majority of Android users still can't see these new emojis. Support for the latest emojis came to Android in the major Nougat release in August of 2016. The Google design team were months ahead of Apple with new emoji in the past year.

Wechat emoji for android