Skip to main content

To celebrate World Emoji Day, Apple debuts over 70 new emojis coming to iOS 12

In honor of “World Emoji Day,” Apple unveiled more than 70 new Apple emojis to use later this year. From different hairstyles to exotic animals, the company shared a first look at what we can expect to see on our keyboards very soon.

While Apple only teased a few designs, the latest additions are based on Unicode Version 11.0 — which includes more than 150 new emojis. This year’s library of images include even more ways for users to express themselves through messaging — with more emotions and personalization.

Recommended Videos

Among the new list of emoji characters Apple is releasing are new hair options. Those with red hair, curly hair, and gray hair will be happy to know there will soon be an icon for them to send to others. There will also be an emoji for those who are bald.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The options for smiley faces have expanded as well, that should better animate the way you feel. There’s a cold face (complete with icicles) for those days you’re feeling chilly, along with a party face when the balloon or confetti emojis don’t do justice. In addition, there will also be a face with hearts and a pleading face.

Aside from humans and emotions, there’s new animals to choose from as well — including a parrot, lobster, kangaroo, and a peacock. Apple also hasn’t forgotten one of the most important categories of emojis — food. To add to the menu of options already available, users will be able to select emojis of a mango, lettuce, cupcake, moon cake, and more.

Later this year, Apple also plans on releasing additional emojis for sports as well as new symbols, such as a softball, an infinity sign, and a nazar amulet — which protects against the evil eye. There will be new superhero emojis for both males and females as well.

The new icons will be released later this year for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac in a free software update within iOS 12 — Apple’s latest operating system. While the new OS won’t be out until the fall, it’s currently available for download as a public beta for those who want to try it out before it’s released.

Aside from debuting tons of emoji designs on the special day, Apple also took to its leadership board to make a somewhat “minor” (but also funny) change to all of the executive profiles — by replacing each headshot with an executive’s respective Memojis instead. The new feature is part of its Animoji update in iOS 12, which allows iPhone X users to create customized characters of themselves to then send through iMessage.

Brenda Stolyar
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brenda became obsessed with technology after receiving her first Dell computer from her grandpa in the second grade. While…
iOS 18.2 just took another step toward its official release
iOS 18 logo on the iPhone 16 Pro

Yet another iOS update is ready, and this one is important. The iOS 18.2 beta 2 update is live, and it's a big deal for a couple of reasons. It's available to more people than the previous beta, and it indicates another step toward iOS 18.2's public launch.

The first version of this beta was only available to people whose phones supported Apple Intelligence, but this latest version works with any phone that can update to iOS 18. Addditionally, iOS 18.2 beta 2 is only available to developer beta testers. There isn't a public beta at the moment, and we have no word on when one might release. Still, it's good to see that more people are included this time around.

Read more
iOS 18’s best AI tools arrive in December, but Siri has a longer wait
Apple Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro.

The Apple Intelligence toolkit has witnessed a staggered mix of delayed features and underwhelming perks. But it seems that the most promising set of those AI tools that Apple revealed at WWDC earlier this year is right around the corner.

In the latest edition of his PowerOn newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that the iOS 18.2 update will start rolling out via the stable channel in the first week of December.

Read more
The iOS 18.2 beta, with new Apple Intelligence features, is here
iOS 18.2 update notification on an iPhone.

Apple has just rolled out the first beta of iOS 18.2, merely a day after seeding a release candidate version of the iOS 18.1 build. The latest beta brings some of the biggest Apple Intelligence features to the table.

The first one is ChatGPT integration. When users bring up Siri and ask it a question the assistant can’t handle, the request will be offloaded to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. “Users are asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer directly,” Apple says.

Read more