The Unicode Consortium has published a draft list of emoji that may appear on smartphones and other devices in the future. The list includes 19 candidate emojis that are being considered for Emoji 18.0, which is expected to be finalized in September 2026.
Among the suggested additions are a face emoji , thumbs-up and thumbs-down gestures, a cucumber, a lighthouse, a meteorite, an eraser, and a scythe. The list also includes a monarch butterfly emoji.
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In addition to these emoji concepts, Emoji 18.0 will add (if approved) 10 additional skin tones associated with two of the core emojis. These changes will bring the total number of proposed emoji characters to close to 4,000.
Emojipedia has shared sample artwork for many of the candidate emojis, but Apple designers will need to create their own version of each character in the company's style (if the emojis are ultimately approved). The proposed lineup is not final and may change during the Unicode review process
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New emoji on iOS
Apple need to release its own versions of the new emoji via software updates, so the new characters will likely arrive on the iPhone in late 2026 or early 2027 (as part of iOS 27).
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Apple has adopted the new Unicode emoji in previous software releases , and the previously announced Unicode 17 additions are expected to arrive on Apple devices with the release of iOS 26.4, iPadOS 26.4, macOS 26.4, watchOS 26.4, and visionOS 26.4 (in March or April of this year).
