In celebration of World Emoji Day, the Unicode Consortium has announced the next batch of emoji characters set to be added to smartphones and other devices later this year.
As part of the upcoming Unicode 17 update, new emojis will include a Bigfoot (or hairy creature), apple core, distorted face, fight cloud, treasure chest, trombone, orca, and ballet dancers.
Once the Unicode 17 standard is officially released in the fall, Apple will begin designing its versions of the new emojis to match the iOS style. However, users will need to wait until next spring to use them, as Apple typically introduces new emojis several months after the Unicode update.
The new emojis are expected to arrive on Apple devices as part of iOS 26.4. This follows Apple’s most recent emoji update, iOS 18.4, which was released in March 2025. That update introduced Unicode 16 emojis, including bags under eyes, fingerprint, leafless tree, root vegetable, harp, shovel, and splatter.
The Unicode Consortium updates the emoji list each year. Anyone can submit ideas for new emoji characters, which are reviewed and considered for future releases.
