New Emoji Are Coming To Android In December, Some Are Animated

Google has now announced a new set of emoji coming to Android, Chrome, and elsewhere and some of those will reportedly be animated. That’s based on recent news stemming from Google’s announcement.

The new emoji, shown below alongside a few of those slated to be animated, cover the gamut. There’s a moose, myriad colored hearts, a “stop” hand, a lavender plant, and a few others. Each of these is part of the latest Unicode 15 standard and is set to be added in December to Android. There are 21 new emojis in all.

Now, the new emoji will arrive in December, via AOSP. Summarily, via Android’s underlying code. So nearly every phone should ultimately support them, although when they arrive will vary by OEM. Pixel gadgets receive monthly updates and should see them in December alongside the launch.

What’s this about animated emoji in Android and what’s new elsewhere?

Additionally, Google is slated to add its first official animated variant of emoji for Android. Not every one of those available today will be animated, once that rollout starts. However, approximately 200 of the current emoji will be. Including the six shown below in the bottom row of the image.

This represents a significant expansion over support for some animated emojis already available in Google Messages.

Moreover, Google is set to roll out full-color variants of its “Noto Emoji” for end users. For clarity, Noto Emoji are those used online, via Chrome and other Google-branded services. Right now, those are only shown in black-and-white colorations. But the new update will bring those into full color, creating a kind of parity with Android in more places on the web.

Google Chrome will gain additional support as well, for emojis that can change colors. Although it isn’t quite clear, at present, what exactly that will entail when it hits end-users.

All of the new animated emojis can be viewed on Google’s website for the feature.