Google promises new emojis are coming to Android

Some of the new emojis in iOS 9.1. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Some of the new emojis in iOS 9.1. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

If you have friends who use iOS, you’ve probably been getting a lot of messages that contain new emojis you can’t see. That’s because Android doesn’t support them yet, but Android SVP Hiroshi Lockheimer promises that Google is “on it.”

Emoji icons are now part of the Unicode Standard, and every so often, it is updated to include new ones. Android currently supports Unicode 6.0 — the first set to adopt emoji back in October 2010 — but with its latest iOS 9.1 update, Apple added support for Unicode 8.0.

iOS users have lots of emojis that Android users cannot see, then — and it’s becoming a problem. Whether you’re messaging friends in WhatsApp, checking out their photos on Instagram, or viewing their updates on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll encounter icons you cannot see.

This can be very frustrating, and the further behind Android falls, the worse it gets. Google hasn’t been all that bothered about it, either; not even its fancy new Android 6.0 Lollipop update adopts a more recent Unicode Standard.

But the company is listening now. Lockheimer today took to Twitter to ensure Android users that it is listening, and working to bring the latest emojis to the Android platform.

Lockheimer didn’t say when that would happen, unfortunately, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too long. In the meantime, don’t tell your iOS-using friends that your Android is a little behind, because they’ll send you messages filled with emojis you can’t see on purpose. Trust me.