While many of us iPhone owners just installed the recent iOS 26.3.1 bug patch, Apple is currently at work on another update altogether: iOS 26.4. This update is in beta testing, and brings new features and changes, like AI playlists for Apple Music and support for end-to-end encryption for RCS. But Apple’s most recent beta for 26.4 includes something new that most iPhone users will likely enjoy: eight new emojis.
These new emojis aren’t necessarily Apple’s creations. Instead, they’re based on the Unicode Version 17.0, an emoji standard released on Sept. 9, 2025. When the Unicode Standard releases new emoji standards, it’s up to developers to create their own art for their users. In this case, we’re seeing Apple’s interpretations of these new emoji standards. For their part, Google released its Unicode 17 emojis the same day the standard was announced.
Here are Apple’s new emojis for iOS 26.4
The new emojis in this standard are:
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Distorted Face: A fish-eye effect that shows a face with large eyes to the sides of its head, with an overall surprised expression. (I expect to see a lot of these in message threads and social media posts.)
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Fight Cloud: Something you might expect to see above a cartoon brawl.
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Ballet Dancer: A dancer balancing on one foot.
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Orca: What you’d expect from a killer whale emoji. (I’m honestly surprised this wasn’t an option already.)
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Hairy Creature: Bigfoot, now an emoji.
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Trombone: A trombone.
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Landslide: A large rock with falling rocks on its side. (I feel we could have put more effort into this one.)
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Treasure Chest: A reasonably detailed emoji showing a treasure chest bursting open to reveal a crown, gold coins, rubies, and a pearl necklace.
You can see all eight of Apple’s in the image embedded in the following post from Emojipedia on X:
What do you think so far?
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Unless Apple decides to push them off to iOS 26.5, these emojis will come out with iOS 26.4. There’s no set release date here, but seeing as iOS 18.4 dropped on March 31 last year, there’s a good shot that we’ll see the new emojis on our iPhones before April.
