Apple is expected to bring a new set of emojis to the iPhone with a future iOS update, and an early list is already out. The Unicode Consortium has shared a draft list of emojis that may be added as part of Unicode 18. These emojis are likely to reach iPhones with iOS 27.
Every emoji that appears on your iPhone first goes through Unicode. This global body decides which emojis get approved and how they are described. Once the list is finalized, companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung design their own versions of those emojis for their platforms.
According to the draft list, these emojis are among the ones being considered for inclusion:
- Smiley face with squinting eyes
- Leftward thumb sign gesture
- Rightward thumb sign gesture
- Monarch butterfly
- Pickle
- Lighthouse
- Meteor
- Eraser
- Net with handle
The designs currently shared are only sample images from the Unicode Consortium. Apple will redesign each emoji in its own style if and when these characters are officially approved. This means the emojis you eventually see on the iPhone may look different from the draft versions circulating right now.
Now that thousands of emojis are already available, the excitement around new emojis has slowed down in recent years. Each new update feels less dramatic than it once did. Many users now scroll past dozens of options to find the one they want, which makes new additions feel less noticeable.
With iOS 18, Apple introduced Genmoji as part of Apple Intelligence. This feature lets users create custom emojis using text prompts or by mixing existing emojis. Because of this, some users may rely less on official emoji updates and more on custom creations.
Apple is still in the process of rolling out Unicode 17 emojis. Those emojis were finalized in mid-2025 and are expected to arrive on iPhones with a later update to iOS 26, likely around March or April. Based on Apple’s past release pattern, Unicode 18 emojis should follow about a year later.
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