The Unicode Consortium has recently unveiled its recommendations for Unicode 17.0; hence, new emojis might be coming to iPhones and other devices soon. Eight new emoji characters have been proposed, including a hairy creature resembling Bigfoot, a distorted face, a fight cloud, an apple core, an orca, a trombone, a landslide, and a treasure chest.
In addition to these new characters, the proposal includes skin tone variations for existing emojis, such as ballet dancers, people with bunny ears, and people wrestling, as per MacRumors. We want our readers to know that even though the Unicode Consortium sets the emoji code, Apple’s designers will put their own spin on these characters in their signature style once Unicode 17 is finalized.
Unicode 17 is expected to be approved in fall 2025. Implementation by Apple could occur around spring 2026, based on their typical emoji release schedule.
Apple will roll out Unicode 16 emojis in 2025. These include things like a tired face, a fingerprint, a bare tree, and a root veggie, to name a few. Apple’s most recent emoji update came with iOS 17.4 in March 2024, which introduced characters like a lime, an edible brown mushroom, and a phoenix.
Looking ahead, Apple plans to debut Genmoji with iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, allowing users with devices supporting Apple Intelligence to create customizable emoji-like characters based on user-provided phrases.