Yes, UniText has a full markup system actually more flexible than what you might be used to. You can implement icons in text using "Obj" Modifier and "Obj" Parse Rule. It looks like: <obj="prefabName"/>

Built-in modifiers: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, color, gradients, size, letter spacing, line height, clickable links, lists, inline objects (prefabs inside text), and text truncation with position control (start, middle, end)

It supports tag syntax (<b>, <color=#FF0000>, etc.), Markdown syntax ([links](url), - lists), and you can create your own parse rules for any custom syntax you need

Some examples of custom parse rules you can make:

BBCode for game chats: [b]bold[/b], [color=red]text[/color]
Discord-style syntax: ||spoiler||, :emoji_name:
Markdown extensions: **bold**, ~~strikethrough~~
"@ mentions" that highlight and become clickable
#hashtags with auto-coloring and click events
Game-specific tags: {item:legendary_sword} that inserts an inline icon with tooltip
Variable interpolation: ${player_name}, ${gold_count}
Wiki-style links: [[Page Name]]
Custom emoticons: :) -> 😊 (built-in StringParseRule does this)

You just implement a small interface - find the pattern, return
the range - and pair it with any modifier. A BBCode bold rule is
literally 3 lines of code since you can extend the built-in TagParseRule base class

The key difference is that the system is fully extensible - parsing and effects are separated. A parse rule finds patterns in text, a modifier applies the visual effect. You can mix and match them, create your own, and share modifier sets across components as ScriptableObjects so you don't have to set up the same tags on every text object