You’ve probably scrolled through your emoji keyboard a dozen times looking for it. You find the rainbow. You find the trans flag. You might even find the pirate flag or the checkered racing flag if you dig deep enough. But if you’re looking for those specific pink, purple, and blue stripes, you’re out of luck. There is no official bisexual pride flag emoji.
It’s weird, right? Especially since the "Bi Flag" is one of the most recognizable symbols in the LGBTQ+ community. It’s been around since 1998. It has a clear design. Yet, when you type "bisexual" into your predictive text, you usually just get a pink heart or a generic rainbow.
This isn't just a glitch on your phone. It’s a whole saga involving international coding standards, grassroots activism, and a very specific organization called the Unicode Consortium. Honestly, the story of why we’re still waiting for those three colorful stripes tells us a lot about how digital language is made—and who gets a seat at the table.
The Mystery of the Missing Stripes
To understand why the bisexual pride flag emoji is missing, you have to understand how emojis actually get onto your screen. It’s not like Apple or Google just decide to draw a new picture one morning. Everything has to be approved by the Unicode Consortium. They’re the gatekeepers. They ensure that when I send a "taco" emoji from an iPhone, it doesn't show up as a "refrigerator" on a Samsung.
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Basically, emojis are code.
For a flag to become an emoji, someone has to submit a massive, formal proposal. We’re talking dozens of pages of data proving that people will actually use it. In 2020, we finally got the transgender flag emoji after a long, hard-fought campaign led by activists and supported by tech giants like Google and Microsoft. But the bi flag? It’s been stuck in a sort of digital limbo.
There have been attempts. People have written the papers. They’ve gathered the data. But the Unicode Consortium has recently become much more strict about adding new flags. They’ve actually stated they aren't looking to add many more "identity" flags because the list could, theoretically, be infinite. That puts the bisexual community in a tough spot. Is it fair that some identities have flags while others don't? Probably not. But that’s the current "bureaucracy of symbols" we’re living in.
How the Bi Flag Came to Be
Michael Page designed the physical flag in 1998. He wanted to give the bisexual community its own symbol, something distinct from the rainbow flag which many felt was dominated by gay and lesbian identities at the time.
The colors aren't just random. The top 40% is magenta (representing same-gender attraction). The bottom 40% is royal blue (representing different-gender attraction). Then there’s that 20% deep lavender stripe in the middle. That purple represents the overlap—the unique "bi" space where attraction isn't binary.
It’s a beautiful design. It’s simple. It’s recognizable from a distance. It’s exactly what an emoji should be.
Yet, because of the technical hurdles, we have to get creative. If you look at Twitter (X) or Discord, you’ll see people using a specific combination of symbols to "hack" the system. They’ll use the pink heart, the purple heart, and the blue heart in a row. It’s a makeshift bisexual pride flag emoji. It works, but it’s not the same as having a single, unified character.
The 2020 Proposal and the "Flag Fatigue" Problem
A few years back, a formal proposal was submitted to Unicode for the bi flag. It was thorough. It pointed out that bisexual people make up the largest single group within the LGBTQ+ community according to Gallup polls. It showed that "bisexual" is searched more often than many other terms that already have emojis.
But Unicode hit back with a "no."
Their reasoning? They claim that flags are "notoriously difficult" to implement and that they don't want to "pick winners and losers" among identities. It feels like a bit of a cop-out to many in the community. If you can have an emoji for "person in manual wheelchair" and "person in motorized wheelchair," surely you can find room for a flag representing millions of people?
Jennifer Daniel, who chairs the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, has often talked about the complexity of these additions. She’s pushed for more "modular" emojis—things like the hearts—rather than specific flags. But for a community that often feels invisible, or "erased," having an official bisexual pride flag emoji is about more than just a tiny icon. It’s about validation. It’s about saying "we see you" in the most common language on earth: the digital one.
Creative Workarounds: How to "Type" the Flag
Since we don't have a single button, the community has developed its own "syntax." You’ve probably seen these.
The most common is the Heart Triad: 💖💜💙.
Sometimes people use the "ZWJ" (Zero Width Joiner) logic in their heads, even if the phone doesn't render it. On some platforms, if you're lucky and the developers have been proactive (like on certain Discord servers), they've uploaded a "custom emoji." But that’s not universal. You can’t use a Discord custom emoji in a text to your mom or a caption on Instagram.
There’s also the "Pink/Blue" aesthetic. You see this a lot in lighting—referred to as "bi lighting" in movies like Atomic Blonde or John Wick. When we can't use an emoji, we use the colors. We use the vibe. It’s a way of signaling to each other without needing permission from a committee in California.
The Impact of Digital Erasure
It sounds small. "It’s just an emoji, get over it."
But is it?
We live our lives online. We build our identities in group chats and social media bios. When a group is systematically excluded from the "alphabet" of modern communication, it reinforces the idea that they are an "other" or a footnote. Bisexual erasure is a real thing in healthcare, in media, and yes, in technology.
A 2022 study on digital inclusion found that representation in small ways—like having your flag on a keyboard—actually contributes to a sense of belonging among queer youth. When they look for themselves and find a blank space, it sends a message.
What Happens Next?
Is there hope for an official bisexual pride flag emoji in 2026?
Maybe. But it's an uphill battle.
Unicode has basically put a moratorium on new flag emojis unless they represent a country or a region with a specific ISO code. This means that unless the rules change, we might never get the bi flag, the pan flag, or the non-binary flag as standalone icons.
The strategy now for most activists is moving away from Unicode and toward the platforms themselves. Meta (Instagram/Facebook) and Google have the power to create "stickers" or "custom glyphs" that work within their own ecosystems. It's a fragmented solution, but it might be the only one we have for a while.
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Actionable Steps for Better Digital Visibility
If you’re tired of the missing flag, you don’t have to just sit there. There are ways to push for change and ways to use what we have more effectively.
- Use the Heart Triad (💖💜💙): The more these three colors are used together, the more they become the "de facto" emoji. Algorithms notice patterns.
- Support Grassroots Petitions: While Unicode doesn't always listen to Change.org, large-scale public pressure has influenced tech companies to build their own workarounds (like Instagram's pride-colored hashtags).
- Create Custom Content: If you’re a developer or a designer, build "Open Graph" images or stickers that incorporate the bi flag colors.
- Check Your Settings: Some third-party keyboards for Android allow you to "skin" your own emojis. It’s a local fix, meaning only you see it, but it’s a start.
- Engage with Unicode Proposals: You can actually read the public feedback on the Unicode website. Stay informed on when the next "Emoji 17.0" or "18.0" cycles begin.
The bisexual pride flag emoji might be missing from your standard keyboard for now, but the community it represents is far from invisible. We’ve always been good at making our own space when the world doesn't give us one. Until that little rectangular icon arrives, we’ll just keep using our hearts. 💖💜💙
Source Reference Note: Information regarding Michael Page and the flag's history is based on historical records from the BiFlag.com archives. Technical details regarding the Unicode Consortium and Jennifer Daniel’s statements are derived from official Unicode Emoji Subcommittee reports and public technical presentations. Observations on "bi lighting" are based on widely accepted film theory and cinematography analysis within LGBTQ+ media studies.