Unicode 9.0 was a major expansion of the character standard: it added thousands of characters, new scripts and dialect support, a batch of emoji, and updates to several technical specifications that affect sorting, URL handling and spoofing protections.
What Unicode 9.0 added
Highlights of the release include:
- Around 7,500 new code points, extending the reach of the standard to languages and scripts that previously lacked coverage. - New script and language additions such as Osage, Nepal Bhasa, Fulani and others; support for regional varieties like the Bravanese dialect of Swahili; and orthographic variants such as the Warsh Arabic orthography. - Historic and scholarly scripts such as Tangut were included, making it easier to exchange and search older texts in standard electronic form. - A set of symbols including items for the then-new TV standards (19 symbols were included in this batch). - 72 emoji characters were added, expanding the pictograph repertoire for modern messaging and UI use.
Alongside the character additions, three important technical specifications were updated in concert with the release:
- UTS #10 — Unicode Collation Algorithm (how Unicode text is sorted and compared). - UTS #39 — Unicode Security Mechanisms (measures to reduce spoofing and other security issues around character use). - UTS #46 — Unicode IDNA Compatibility Processing (rules for handling non‑ASCII domain names and compatible processing for URLs).
UTR #51 also provides detailed guidance on emoji handling and presentation.
What this means for you (and what to do)
For ordinary users: the new characters and emoji won’t appear automatically. Fonts, operating systems and apps need to include glyphs and rendering rules before characters display correctly. If you don’t see a new emoji or script glyph, try updating your device or app; if that isn’t possible, the characters may appear as empty boxes or labelled codepoints.
For webmasters and developers:
- Review the Unicode 9.0 migration notes and the migration sections of UTS #10, UTS #39, UTS #46 and UTR #51. Some changes affect how text should be compared, normalised, or treated for security. - Update libraries and toolchains that handle collation, IDNA processing and security checks. Behaviour may differ for sorting and for recognising visually similar characters unless you adopt the updated recommendations. - Ensure fonts you distribute or rely on include the required glyphs, and test rendering across platforms and browsers.
Practical checks you can run now:
- Use a character viewer or inspector to enter the Unicode code point and see whether your system has a glyph for it. - Test IDN handling and URL processing in a controlled environment if your site or service accepts internationalised domain names. - Run security checks for homoglyphs (visually similar characters) in user input or identifiers, following the guidance in Unicode security materials.
Unicode standard updates like 9.0 are about making text on computers more complete and interoperable. The additions open up communication for more languages and use cases, but they also require updates in fonts, operating systems and application code to be useful in practice.