![]() ![]() This became a non-issue in 2017, when subdivisions such as Scotland and Texas gained support in the Unicode Standard, albeit using a different method. XT worked for Texas, but if this expanded to all US states, what would Tennessee use?ĭue to the way these codes were implemented, sets of three or more Regional Indicator characters aren't feasible, as text rendering engines will match any two with an emoji first (eg if XSD were used for South Dakota, text engines would render the XS as a Scottish flag first, and be left with the D hanging at the end) In fact, this is pretty much why Unicode exists in the first place: instead of companies backwards-engineering how other platforms display various text characters, have a standard that all companies contribute toward and agree to use.Ībove: A Texas Flag emoji shown on the WhatsApp for Android emoji keyboard. In theory there was no reason other platforms couldn't have supported these, but the challenge would have been scaling it to more regions, if it became popular. These codes didn't work on other platforms, and would show just the letters if sent outside WhatsApp. These were used to display regions that weren't covered by ISO 3166-1 (the "X" at the front indicated these aren't part of the standard set). WhatsApp previously invented its own pairs of regional indicators for a few flags including Scotland (XS) and Texas (XT). If the ISO 3166-1 standard was updated to add a new country tomorrow, that would almost certainly end up on the emoji flag list. Vendors aren't required to support all of these flags (Microsoft doesn't support any country flags on Windows, instead showing the two-letter country codes), but generally do support everything in the list for compatibility. If there is a code on the list, it is listed as an emoji automatically, without any proposal required. ISO 3166-1 also includes codes for some macro-regions, namely: The list of valid sequences for country flags is derived from ISO 3166-1 which is an internationally recognized list of countries and regions. The United States flag is a sequence of these two characters: This is a clever system that avoids Unicode needing to create a new code point for every country. Systems look up to see if a pair is valid, and show a flag instead. □□ Flag for United StatesĬountry flags such as the one for the USA are created by pairing two Regional Indicator characters. Using the same concept as Rainbow Flag, Twitter supported a Pirate Flag in their Twemoji set for a number of years by joining the □ Black Flag and ☠️ Skull and Crossbones before Unicode listed this flag as RGI in 2018. The drawback is that without consensus among vendors, users won't see custom ZWJ Sequences correctly across platforms and would instead see the individual parts. As such, it's possible for vendors to add more of these by joining two existing emojis together, if they wish. Unicode has listed this as being Recommended for General Interchange (RGI), meaning major vendors support or have committed to supporting this sequence.īy design, ZWJ Sequences don't require Unicode approval like a regular emoji does. Rainbow flag is a ZWJ Sequence of these two emojis: These generally aren't associated with any specific country, region or group of people-although the □ Crossed Flags emoji displays as Japanese flags on all major platforms ( previously a South Korean flag on Samsung). It happens to look like a flag, but isn't encoded any differently to a □ Radio or □ Trumpet.įlag like this (and □) were generally added to Unicode for compatibility with the Japanese carrier emoji sets, or other pre-emoji fonts such as Webdings. □□□□□□□ Flag for Scotland (GB-SCT)Ĭhequered Flag is the easiest of the flags.While the code used to display a flag might seem like the least interesting part of a flag emoji, understanding these details is essential in determining why these 268 flags specifically exist, and help frame the feasibility of new flags in future. Photo: Jeremy Burge / Emojipedia.įor each flag shown on an average emoji keyboard, there are at least four different ways it might be encoded behind the scenes. ![]() How were these 268 determined to be more eligible than any other flags?Ībove: Only 10 country flags were on iPhone in 2008. With calls in recent years for emoji representation of the Aboriginal Australian flag, Transgender flag, Brittany flag, Kurdish flag (and many more) it's worth taking a closer look at the ways that flags can be added to the Unicode Standard, and how that impacts the set of flags available today.Īfter all, Apple's iPhone only included 10 country flag emojis in 2008, and now there are 268. As with most things Unicode-related, emoji flags are more complicated than they may first appear. ![]()
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