In all honesty, this might be the least of apple’s worries currently, as someone that hasn’t updated my system in a while, i sincerely ask that apple adds an orca/killer whale emoji, it’s been my favorite animal since forever, and if you did add it, i would most likely use it for everything.
sincerely,
someone who loves orcas
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 18
There are alternatives to emoji: stickers and Genmoji. These are not true emoji. They are sent as small pictures rather than as Unicode characters, which is why they do not require the blessing of the Unicode consortium.
I believe that making stickers requires iOS 17 or higher, while creating Genmoji requires a phone that is capable of running Apple Intelligence (which an iPhone 13 Pro Max isn't).
Make stickers from your photos on iPhone - Apple Support
Create your own emoji with Genmoji on iPhone - Apple Support
Unless or until the Unicode Consortium approves an Orca Emoji, you can create a sticker of one, which you can use an emoji on your iPhone --> Make stickers from your photos on iPhone - Apple Support
Or you can update to an iPhone 15 Pro/15 Pro Max or any iPhone 16 model and create an Orca Emoji using Gemoji.
One is already being considered by the Unicode Consortium; they, not Apple, determine which emojis become available.
(261223)
For a little bit more information on how emoji requests are handled and the current requests being considered you can view the Unicode Consortium page here:
https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html
The reason why it is a third party that approves emojis is so they are the same across all device manufacturers. Each manufacturer simply adopts that latest standard emojis that have been approved. You can imagine the chaos that would be caused if each manufacturer created their own emojis, as you may send and emoji from one platform and it could be received as something completely different on the other.
Emojis are not actually pictures that are sent, they are simply a "character" just like letters on a keyboard and it is the manufacturer that interprets that "character" to be displayed on your screen as the emoji that has been standardized by the Unicode Consortium. That way the same "character" is represented as the same emoji no matter if you are using an iPhone or Android phone.
i want an orca emoji
