We can’t wait to use the phoenix emoji tbh (Picture: Emojipedia)
Emoji lovers and iPhone owners, prepare yourself for a host of new little icons to spice up your messages.
The release of Apple’s iOS 17.4, the first major software update of 2024, means an exciting line-up featuring a lime, a phoenix, a brown mushroom, a broken metal chain, and more than 100 people, erm, facing sideways.
The emoji set, 15.1, will add 118 new emojis which were recommended for release and approved back in September.
The new additions were approved by the Unicode Consortium, the central bank of all approved emojis, and we got a sneak peak at them after the beta release in January.
‘The new emojis in [the] beta release are drawn from Unicode’s September 2023 recommendations – Emoji 15.1,’ said Keith Broni, editor-in-chief of Emojipedia, speaking at the time.
The four gender-neutral family emojis (Picture: Emojipedia)
The new batch consists of a lime, a phoenix, a brown mushroom and a broken metal chain, as well as a few new smiley faces shaking their heads and four gender-neutral family emojis.
The families consists of two parents and a child, one parent and two children, one parent and one child, and two parents and two children.
The new emojis coming to iOS 17.4
Head shaking vertically
Phoenix
Lime
Brown mushroom
Broken chain
Four new non-gender-specifying family emojis
Direction-specifying versions of six existing people emojis (amounting to 108 emojis)
Side profiles of a diverse set of people walking and running, specifying race and disabilities, will also be added to the ever-growing catalogue.
Currently, the six existing people emojis are a person walking, a person running, a person kneeling, a person with a cane, a person in a motorised wheelchair and a person in a manual wheelchair.
There are over a hundred new people emojis in the new batch (Picture: Emojipedia)
However, the list does not include any new flag emojis.
Emojipedia said this decision was made because of the ‘transient nature’ of many Pride flags, and the ‘challenges including some identities while excluding others’.
Many of the emojis have already been released to Samsung users and look a little different, with more cartoonish aspects for the fruit and mushrooms.
The new emojis are far from the only change iOS 17.4 is bringing. To keep up with new EU legislation, users in Europe will no longer be forced to download apps from the App Store, with developers, such as Google, able to offer their own.
MORE : Expert reveals the most popular emoji in 2023 – and what it really means
MORE : Boy takes on Apple to try and stop them using glasses on nerd emoji
MORE : The most used emoji on Tinder in 2023 — and the secret meaning behind it