--- title: Emoji growth is slowing. Why? - The Hustle description: Henceforth, there’ll be fewer new emoji. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1079989961-HS-News-Brief_2022-07-21T000148.961Z.webp --- # Emoji growth is slowing. Why? ![Jacob Cohen](https://thehustle.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png?width=48&height=48&name=IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png) [Jacob Cohen](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/jacob-cohen) [Jacob Cohen Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/ImJacobCohen) Published: July 21, 2022 Updated: October 11, 2023 Last week, the Unicode Consortium released a noticeably short list of [31 new emoji candidates](https://www.unicode.org/review/pri443/pri443-background.html), including a shaking face, a jellyfish, a handheld fan, and maracas. ![Emoji growth is slowing. Why?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1079989961-HS-News-Brief_2022-07-21T000148.961Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1079989961-HS-News-Brief_2022-07-21T000148.961Z.webp) The volunteer-run nonprofit, which maintains emoji encoding standards, is reportedly [reducing](https://www.inputmag.com/culture/emoji-overload-unicode-consortium?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) the number of emojis encoded each year, focusing more on quality than quantity, according to *Input Magazine*. - In 2010, there were ~700 emoji. Today, there are 3.6k+. A significant number of those are skin tone alternates, but still, that’s a lotta symbols. As Alexander Robertson, with his PhD in emoji from the University of Edinburgh, recently [pointed out](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1A9PtyDo7Sw5xA3TyMvkZIkJUof9wfIbzNb8-PCYfwGA/edit?usp=sharing) — if you add as few as 10-15 emoji annually for 5k years, you’ll eventually have 60k+ emoji. **Fun fact:** The red flag (🚩) — as in, what you hope you don’t find in a date — is the [most popular](https://qz.com/2148267/the-reason-why-unicode-wont-add-new-flag-emoji/) flag emoji. Flags are also the least popular category, despite being the most numerous. 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