Just under eight years ago, we here at Emojipedia hypothesized that 2018 would be a year of emoji design convergence. Today, we look back at the major emoji updates made since early 2018, covering both design convergence and purposeful design divergence.

X Updates Its Iranian Flag Emoji Design

Earlier today, X (fka Twitter) updated its design for the 🇮🇷 Flag for Iran emoji within the official Twemoji GitHub. Proposing a historic design for the flag not previously used across emoji keyboards, this change would be the X's first emoji update since its 2024 revisions of the 🔫 Pistol emoji.

Draft Emoji List for 2026/2027

As the new calendar year continues to unfold, let's review the latest list of proposed new emojis that could find their way to our standard emoji keyboards later in 2026. Possible new emojis include a squinting face, two new thumb sign gestures, a pickle, and a lighthouse.