Whether it’s a cheeky wink or a grinning cowboy, it might seem like there is already an emoji for every possible situation.
But amazingly, there are now even more designs on the way.
Apple has revealed eight new emojis that are officially coming to iPhones as part of the iOS 18.4 update.
While they are only available in ‘beta’ for now, these new symbols should be rolling out to everyone when the full update is released in late March or early April.
In the update, users will be able to send a colourful fingerprint, bright purple splat, or the flag of the island of Sark.
They’ll also be able to discuss gardening with the new leafless tree, root vegetable, and shovel emojis, or share their musical side with the new harp emoji.
But it is the ‘face with bags under eyes’ emoji that has drummed up the most interest as Apple users flocked to social media to share their enthusiasm.
On X, formerly Twitter, one commenter wrote: ‘That eye bag emoji is about to become my most used.’
Apple has unveiled the eight new emojis that will be coming to your iPhone in iOS 18.4
On X, Apple fans said that the ‘face with bags under eyes’ emoji should be the face that everyone will be using
Another commenter shared a picture of the eye bag emoji saying: ‘I bet this is the most used emoji of the year. 3 months into 2025 and everyone is already tired.’
‘Best emoji they’ve added in years’, said another, while someone else chipped in: ‘I’m using that tired emoji all the time.’
Another wrote: ‘That tired face emoji is something I will be using constantly.’
Tech giants such as Samsung, Apple and Meta apply stylised versions of the new emoji designs to their own operating systems.
This update introduces the new emojis that will become part of the standard emoji keyboard on Apple’s iPhones in the future.
These have been selected from the September 2024 recommendations list created by the Unicode Consortium, the body responsible for deciding the standard set of emojis.
And they’re already available as part of a ‘beta test’ – where people use an early version of a product to uncover any bugs or issues before a general release.
Keith Broni, editor in chief of Emojipedia, which is part of the Unicode Consortium, revealed the Apple designs in a blog post.
The new emojis are currently available in the iOS 18.4 Beta and will roll out more widely when the next software update is released. In the beta, they are not listed under the normal emoji keyboard categories so you will need to search for them by name
One Apple fan claimed that the eye bags emoji was the ‘best emoji they’ve added in years’
Another commenter joked that this will be the ‘most used emoji of the year’
‘Today Apple has previewed its latest batch of Unicode emojis as part of the second iOS 18.4 beta,’ he said.
Even though Sark may seem like a random choice for flag emoji, the island’s geographical neighbours – Jersey and Guernsey – already have their own.
The inclusion of Flag for Sark is a surprise because, as Unicode Consortium admits, it stopped the inclusion of any new flag emoji back in March 2022.
At the time, Emojipedia cited the ‘transient nature’ of many pride flags, and the ‘challenges including some identities while excluding others’.
Broni said: ‘This policy remains in force, though at the time of this policy’s announcement, Unicode did highlight how further national/regional flags could come into existence.’
Social media users also welcomed the arrival of the harp emoji, particularly for its similarity to the Guinness logo.
‘Updating my iPhone for the first time in 3 years to get the little Guinness harp emoji,’ one commenter wrote.
‘That harp emoji is going to do numbers with Guinness drinkers,’ another chipped in.
The harp emoji was well received by many due to its similarity with the Guinness logo
Another commenter jokingly said that the harp emoji would only be useful for texting about the ‘rage of Achilles’
While one commenter joked: ‘Finally a harp emoji for when I’m texting my bro about the rage of Achilles.’
But not every emoji was welcomed so warmly by Apple users.
In a mocking reference to the new ‘root vegetable’ emoji, one commenter wrote: ‘This is big for the radish community’.
Another commenter wrote: ‘I wonder who asked for a radish emoji? Peter Rabbit??’
However, the emoji proving most divisive on social media seems to be the ‘purple splat’, which was loved by some but hated by others.
One furious commenter wrote: ‘Why would anybody need to use the splat emoji’.
‘Ah yes my favourite emoji, the purple splat’, wrote another mockingly.
Yet, on social media, many Apple users declared that the purple splat was their favourite emoji of the update.
The ‘root vegetable’ emoji was seen by many as a particularly useless addition
It was the purple splat emoji which proved the most divisive. Some iPhone users hated the addition while others welcomed it
Even though it was not loved by all, some commenters enthusiastically praised the purple splat
One commenter on X wrote: ‘I’ve been BEGGING for that purple splat emoji’.
‘Trying too hard with the tired emoji purple splat’s got character,’ one iPhone user added.
Meanwhile, one extremely excited Apple fan wrote: ‘I’m gonna overuse tf out of the purple splat emoji when it drops.’
Currently, the only way to get the new emoji is to download the latest version of the iOS 18.4 Beta which can be installed on any model of iPhone from the iPhone X onwards.
However, the emojis might still be a little difficult to find unless you know what you’re looking for since they won’t yet show up under any of the standard emoji categories on the keyboard.
To try out the new emojis for yourself you will need to sign up for Apple’s Beta Programme, which you can find at this link.
Making a Beta Program account will let you download advanced versions of the company’s software directly onto your phone.
Make sure to sign up with the same Apple ID you use on the device on which you want to install the Beta.
One iPhone user wrote on X that they have been ‘BEGGING for that purple splat emoji’
Another commenter wrote that the tired emoji was ‘trying too hard’ while the purple splat had ‘character’
One commenter on X said that they would ‘overuse’ the purple splat emoji as soon as it was available
Once you’ve signed up you can click on the link for the version of the software you’d like to download to learn more information about it.
Now that you’re ready to install the Beta, navigate to Settings, General, and then select Software Updates.
If you have used any of the Beta software before you should immediately see the option for iOS 18.4.
If not, look for the ‘Beta Update’ option on the Software Updates page and click on it to bring up the list of available updates.
Then, simply choose iOS 18.4 Public Beta and select either Update Now or Update Tonight depending on your preferences.
In addition to the new emojis, the iOS 18.4 Beta also includes a suite of new features including some significant changes to Apple Intelligence.
Users will have a new Control Centre allowing them to type commands to Siri and customisable Priority Notifications.
Those with an iPhone 15 Pro or later will also be able to use Visual Intelligence, which integrates AI tools into the camera app.
Apple Intelligence: The best features
Apple Intelligence is essentially a snazzy brand name for Apple’s new-found focus on AI, triggered by the huge success of the ChatGPT.
Here’s a look at some of the best features of Apple Intelligence.
ChatGPT-Siri integration
Surely the biggest part of Apple Intelligence is the integration of OpenAI’s hugely popular chatbot ChatGPT with Siri, Apple’s in-built virtual assistant.
With better ‘language-understanding capabilities’ enabled by ChatGPT, Siri will help you across multiple apps and ‘accelerate everyday tasks’, Apple said.
You’ll be able to press and hold the side button to activate Siri as normal, but with ChatGPT behind it Siri will be able to ‘answer thousands of questions about how to do something’ that it couldn’t before.
iOS 18 users will be asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer
For example, you could say, ‘Play that podcast that Jamie recommended’ and Siri will locate and play the episode, without the user having to remember whether it was mentioned in a text or an email.
Or you could ask, ‘When is mum’s flight landing?’ and Siri will find the flight details and cross-reference them with real-time flight tracking to give an arrival time.
AI-generated emoji
If you can never quite find the emoji you’re looking for during chat conversations, Apple has the answer.
One of the more fun parts of Apple Intelligence is AI-generated emoji, which Apple has called ‘Genmoji’ (a mix of ‘generated’ and ’emoji’).
In the Messages app, you can type a short description of the emoji you want – such as ‘smiley relaxing wearing cucumbers’ or ‘squirrel DJ’.
AI-generated emoji: In the Messages app, users can type a short description (e.g. ‘smiley relaxing wearing cucumbers’) to get a unique emoji to send to someone
Similar to AI tools that just need a few words to create weird artworks, from that single prompt Genmoji returns an AI-generated approximation of what you had in mind.
If you don’t like what the AI has made for you, there are a few back-up options for you to choose from.
Clean Up
Apple’s Clean Up tool for the Photos app makes ultra-clean edits to photos – without any telltale signs that the snap has been tampered with in any way.
It lets users remove ‘distracting objects’ from the background of a photo – for example a photobomber in the background of a family snap.
Clean Up is very similar to Google’s photo-editing technology ‘Magic Eraser’ for its Pixel phones, heavily promoted in Google adverts in recent years.
The new Clean Up tool in Apple’s Photos app can identify and remove ‘distracting objects’ in the background of a photo
But the technology has been described by some as ‘Orwellian’ as it can distort reality and ‘create a false memory’.
Referring to Clean Up, one commenter said it ‘can be misused’ because it ‘makes deleting evidence easy’.
Image Playground
AI also powers a new image-generating tool called ‘Image Playground’, which is available on multiple apps, including Messages and Pages.
With Image Playground, users can create images in a few seconds, choosing from three styles – ‘animation’, ‘illustration’ and ‘sketch’.
Image Playground allows users to create fun images in seconds, choosing from three styles – Animation, Illustration and Sketch
A promo image appears to show a photo of a person being turned into a video game-style 3D avatar wearing a spacesuit in the ‘animation’ setting.
Rather like Genmoji, this ‘exciting’ image creation tool will help iPhone owners ‘communicate and express themselves in new ways’, the company says.
Movie Memories
The vast media storage capabilities of an iPhone means its always tempting to look back through your photos and video for a burst of nostalgia.
Recognizing this, Apple has come up with ‘Movie Memories’, an AI tool that creates the perfect home movie to watch on your device.
By typing a short description – for example ‘last summer in our garden’ – the AI can search your media library and and arrange photos and clips into a movie ‘with its own narrative arc’.
Movie Memories picks out the best photos and videos based on a user’s description and arranges it all into a movie with its own narrative arc
And as no movie is quite as good without a bit of music, you’ll get song suggestions from Apple Music to match the memory.
Again, Apple stresses the privacy aspect of using an AI to search through your private life.
‘As with all Apple Intelligence features, user photos and videos are kept private on device and are not shared with Apple or anyone else,’ it says.
AI writing tools
Using AI to make your writing extra concise is not a new thing – for example Microsoft’s Copilot AI is creating first drafts and suggesting edits in Word.
But now Apple is jumping on the bandwagon with its own AI-powered writing tools.
The tech will rewrite, proofread and summarize text on multiple apps, including Mail, Notes and Pages, as well as some third-party apps.
‘Whether tidying up class notes, ensuring a blog post reads just right, or making sure an email is perfectly crafted, Writing Tools help users feel more confident in their writing,’ the firm says.
