So when Unicode releases a bunch of emojis, is it kinda like releasing a spec? Like Apple/android then has to have their designers go and actually draw all of the emojis from the spec?
In principle yes, but of course they don't have to. It's their own choice to have bespoke drawings. They also could just refuse to add the new emoji and just show �.
Yes. They don't even release a baseline font themselves, it's all up to the people who create fonts to create the drawings. This is dissimilar to how for example the Alliance for Open Media works, where they create the spec, like AV1, and also release a reference version of the codec.
