WhatsApp implemented a custom keyboard on their android app so users could send apple designed emoji. The question here is on how are they allowed to use the emoji designs by Apple, not about Unicode or, as I've seen answered on other places, how they got the assets.
AFAIK apple was quick to adopt Unicode7.0 and 8.0 first and released the new emojis with their own design of the unicode characters. Unicode is in public domain. They(emojis) must first be approved by unicode consortium, but the vendors may choose the change the designs. Since the unicode translation is same for everyone All android was to do was design its own version of same unicode as emoji since unicode(version) already has the support.
Update: No, licencing is not required since Unicode is open and public.
But WhatsApp on Android doesn't use the Android emoji font, it uses the iOS emoji font. As far as I understand, while the Unicode standard is in the public domain, the specific fonts are not.
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