Unicode 18.0 Beta Review Opens for Feedback

 By: Peter Constable, Chair of the Unicode Technical Committee

The Unicode® Standard provides the character encoding that underlies text in the world’s language on billions of devices, in apps and across the web. The next version of the standard, version 18.0, will be released later this year. A beta review period for Unicode 18.0 has started and is open until July 7, 2026.

The beta is intended primarily for review of character property data and changes to algorithm specifications (Unicode Standard Annexes and certain Unicode Technical Standards that are synchronized with the Unicode Standard). Implementers are encouraged to review these changes for consistency or unexpected issues. Also, a complete draft of the core specification text is available for review during the beta period.

At this phase of a release, the character repertoire is considered stable. No new characters will be added. Characters that are new in this version could still be removed, and their character names or code points could be changed, but such changes would require strong justification.

For this release, 13,047 new characters will be added, bringing the total number of encoded characters in Unicode 18.0 to 172,848. The largest set of additional characters is for the new Small Seal script with 11,328 ideographs. Other notable character additions include:

• Chisoi script: a modern script used in northeast India.
• Jurchen script: an historic ideographic script used in northeastern China during the Jin and Ming dynasties.
• New currency symbols for the Maldivian rufiyaa, Omani rial and UAE dirham currencies.
• 72 historical mathematical symbols.
• 73 musical symbols.
• Nine new emoji characters.

See The Pipeline and the delta code charts pages for details on all of the new characters.

In addition to new characters, there are some significant changes related to character properties or algorithms, including the following:

• A new Unicode Standard Annex will be added to document properties for large, non-CJK East Asian scripts.
• Two provisional properties for CJK Unified ideographs will be removed, and two new provisional properties will be added.
• The derivation of one of the properties used for grapheme cluster segmentation of Indic scripts will be revised.
• There will be significant revisions to the confusable characters data (confusables.txt) relevant for security.

It was found that wording in the core specification of earlier versions was not completely clear regarding variation sequences and conformance. To provide greater clarity, the text describing variation sequences and related conformance requirements will be revised. See section 3.6.2 in the draft core spec for details.

See the Unicode 18.0 Beta landing page for other noteworthy property and algorithm changes. For full details regarding the Beta review, see Public Review Issue #548. Feedback should be reported under PRI #548 using the Unicode Contact Form by July 7, 2026.

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Unicode CLDR 49: Submission open through June 2026

The Unicode® CLDR Survey Tool is open for submission for version 49 through June (see detailed schedule below). CLDR provides key building blocks for software to support the world's languages (dates, times, numbers, sort order, etc.). All major browsers and all modern mobile phones use CLDR for language support. (See Who uses CLDR?)

Via the online Survey Tool, contributors supply data for their languages — data that is widely used to support much of the world’s software. This data is also a factor in determining which languages are supported on mobile phones and computer operating systems.

The new areas in CLDR 49 are focused on:

• Unicode 18 additions: new emoji, script names, …

• Improvements in date and time and locale display names formatting

• New languages available for submission in Survey Tool: Adyghe [ady], Brahui [brh], Hunsrik [hrx],  Interslavic [isv], Kabardian [kbd], Kaitag [xdq], Mara [mrh], and Susu [sus] 

General Submission for TC locales* opened recently and is slated to finish on June 10, 2026. The Survey Tool then enters a vetting phase, where contributors select the best data for each field. That vetting phase is slated to finish on June 29. The draft data will be available in a public alpha in early August, and the final release is targeted for mid-October.

Other locales, managed by the DDL Working Group, have a longer submission period to allow smaller organizations to submit data on a more flexible timeline. The Survey Tool opened earlier for these locales, and will stay in Extended Submission until the end of June, so that these organizations can contribute data for the current release.

Each new locale starts with a small set of Core data, such as a list of characters used in the language. Submitters of those locales need to bring the coverage up to Basic level (very basic basic dates, times, numbers, and endonyms) during the following submission cycle. Once a language reaches Basic coverage, it has the minimum support for use in language selection, such as on mobile devices. In the next submission cycle, the name of that language is also added for translation for all languages at Modern coverage. Locales that reach a higher level of coverage (Moderate or Modern) are suitable for general-purpose support in applications and operating systems.

If you would like to contribute missing data for your language, see Survey Tool Accounts. For more information on contributing to CLDR, see the CLDR Information Hub.

* TC Locales are ones for which major organizations commit to adding data in concert over a short span of time each year.

----------------------------------------------

Adopt a Character and Support Unicode’s Mission

Looking to give that special someone a special something?
Or maybe something to treat yourself?
🕉️💗🏎️🐨🔥🚀爱₿♜🍀

Adopt a character or emoji to give it the attention it deserves, while also supporting Unicode’s mission to ensure everyone can communicate in their own languages across all devices.

Each adoption includes a digital badge and certificate that you can proudly display!

Have fun and support a good cause

Unicode Technology Workshop 2026: Call for Sessions Now Open!

For those interested in participating in and contributing to Unicode Technology Workshop 2026: Unicode in the World, the call for submissions of session and tutorial proposals is now open. If you work on Unicode internationalization technologies or use Unicode internationalization technologies in your work, we want to hear from you. You can register your interest in contributing using the following link: Call for Submissions