Google reveals how its new 3D emoji were designed, and which Android brands are getting them

Emoji on Android are getting a fresh new look. Back in May, Google first shared its latest emoji overhaul with the presentation of its Noto 3D set. Beyond just picking up a new 3D look, familiar emoji are getting a glow up with a lot more detail. Now they’re finally starting to arrive, but if you’ve still got questions about who’s getting access, or what exactly all these new emoji are going to look like, we’ve spotted some answers.

We first saw Noto 3D emoji hitting phones with the release of the Pixel 11 series. And now with more devices moving to Android 17 and related platforms, like Nothing OS 5.0, they’re finally starting to spread. Now Google Design is sharing a closer look at how Noto 3D came to be — and who’s getting it next.

According to Google:

They are rolling out across Google apps, Android, and select devices from partners including Nothing, Lenovo, Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus, realme, vivo, iQOO, HONOR, TECNO, Infinix, itel, Motorola.

As you should be able to tell from that list, you don’t have to be running plain Android 17 to use Noto 3D, and even brands building their own skins are joining the party. And while that list includes a lot of the Android players still left on the scene, we’ve got the notable omission of Samsung — which, of course, likes to create its own emoji designs.

Emoji superfans will enjoy the insight Google offers here into its design process, tackling challenges like optimizing visibility in dark mode and ensuring legibility even when scaled down to itsy, bitsy size. But what’s arguably even more useful is the GitHub archive Google points to that highlights just all the Noto 3D emoji:

Thank god there’s a search function built in here, because this page is exhaustive. Once you find some new 3D emoji that interest you, you can pull a high-res copy to start playing around with, ahead of Noto 3D even arriving for your phone.

Hopefully, though, it won’t be long now before we’re seeing the new designs actually start rolling out for more and more hardware, so we can all start getting used to the many tweaks Google’s come up with here.