The submission window for Emoji 16.0 proposals will be open from April 4 through July 31, but Unicode will not process any new flag emoji proposals, the consortium said in a blog post Monday. Adding new flag emoji in the past hasn't translated to wider adoption, and the addition of new flags "creates exclusivity at the expense of others," Unicode argues.

Despite being the largest category of emoji -- accounting for over 200 of approximately 3,600 emoji in total -- flags are by far the least used. Unicode sees little incentive in adding new flag emoji that would end up going unused. What's more, the organization says that there are over 5,000 geographically recognized regions, and adding one region's flag over another's could look like favoritism.

The Emoji Subcommittee aims to keep the number of new emoji encoded every year to a minimum, and must consider usage frequency and "trade-offs with other choices" when deciding on new emoji to add.