Squinting Face, Pickle, and Lighthouse Among New Emoji Coming to iOS
MacRumors••technology
Key Points:
- The Unicode Consortium has released a draft list of 19 new emoji candidates for Emoji 18.0, expected to be finalized in September 2026, including a squinting face, thumb gestures, a pickle, lighthouse, meteor, eraser, net with a handle, and a monarch butterfly.
- The proposed update would add 9 new emoji concepts and 10 additional skin tone variants, potentially bringing the total number of recommended emoji characters close to 4,000.
- Emojipedia has shared sample artwork for many candidates, but Apple designers will create their own versions if the emoji are approved, with new characters likely arriving on iPhone in late 2026 or early 2027 as part of iOS
