Google Pixel tweaks emoji designs to match iPhone in latest Android 16 beta [Gallery]

Ben Schoon | Dec 18 2025 - 9:15 am PT

As a part of the Android 16 QPR3 beta update that rolled out to Google Pixel phones yesterday, Google has also updated its emoji set to include a few refreshed designs ahead of a larger update to come.

Google’s emoji design for Android (on Pixel devices) has changed over time with slight variations in design for certain emoji alongside new additions. Google revealed its Unicode 17.0 additions, as detailed by Emojipedia, earlier this year, but the company has also implemented a few altered emoji designs which are now live in Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1.

The updated emoji designs for faces include:

Melting Face
Face Exhaling
Nasueated Face
Cold Face
Loudly Crying Face

The changes are, for the most part, relatively minor. The “Face Exhaling” emoji, for instance, gets more of a frontward angle while the “Loudly Crying Face” makes the mouth smaller, falling more in line with Apple’s design. Similarly, “Cold Face” ditches the snow on top for a design that’s simpler and, again, more in line with Apple’s design.

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Moving closer to Apple’s design seems to be the pattern throughout most of Google’s alterations. Where prior designs may have been a bit more animated or expressive, the new looks are just more familiar for those coming from the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy devices.

Great examples of this can be found in the “Melting Face,” “Raccoon,” and “Flashlight” emoji, all of which have been updated to match more closely with Apple’s emoji design on iOS.

There are dozens of other updates as noted by Emojipedia, including the design of the foot emoij, certain animals such as the raccoon, tropical fish, and zebra, objects including the loudspeaker and flashlight, and many others. As far as we can tell, these are all live in QPR3’s first beta update. Again, many of the ones we’ve looked at have all been updated to more closely match iOS emoji designs. “Bacon,” for instance, added a second strip of bacon to match Apple’s look.

These updates are tied to QPR3, as seen on our Pixel 10 Pro XL running the new beta vs a Pixel 10 on the same version of Gboard, but the current stable QPR2 release.

Missing here are the new Unicode 17.0 emoji such as “Distorted Face,” “Orca,” and “Trombone,” among others. They’re not usable, though you can view them in a browser now.