Apple today seeded iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 beta 1 to developers with 15 new emoji characters including a new hand gesture, three new heart colors, and more. This marks the first time new emoji characters have been added to iPhone in more than a year.
A total of 31 new emoji characters have been added to iPhone with iOS 16.4 beta 1
These new emoji possibilities were submitted in July 2022 and included in the new Unicode standard in September 2022. Apple frequently takes several months to integrate new emoji characters because the company’s designers must generate the symbols based on data provided by the Unicode Consortium.
The new emojis in today’s iOS 16.4 beta release include two new hand gestures, three new colored heart emojis, and a new smiling face (each with support for the usual five skin tone modifiers).
- Shaking Face
- Pink Heart
- Light Blue Heart
- Grey Heart
- Rightwards Pushing Hand: Light Skin Tone
- Rightwards Pushing Hand: Medium-Light Skin Tone
- Rightwards Pushing Hand: Medium Skin Tone
- Rightwards Pushing Hand: Medium-Dark Skin Tone
- Rightwards Pushing Hand: Dark Skin Tone
- Leftwards Pushing Hand: Light Skin Tone
- Leftwards Pushing Hand: Medium-Light Skin Tone
- Leftwards Pushing Hand: Medium Skin Tone
- Leftwards Pushing Hand: Medium-Dark Skin Tone
- Leftwards Pushing Hand: Dark Skin Tone
Eight new emoji designs, including a donkey and a pea pod, are also included in today’s iOS 16.4 beta 1. These designs are spread out over the Animals & Nature and Food & Drink emoji categories.
The categories of Activities, Objects, and Symbols each include two new additions, including Maracas, Hair Pick, and Khanda, the Sikh religious sign.
- Donkey
- Moose
- Goose
- Wing
- Jellyfish
- Hyacinth
- Pea Pod
- Ginger
- Folding Hand Fan
- Hair Pick
- Flute
- Maracas
- Khanda
- Wireless
The beta versions of iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, watchOS 9.4, and macOS Ventura 13.3 that are available for developers to download include the emoji characters. Until iOS 16.4 is officially released, these new emoji designs could change, just like with other beta programs.
Apple will release a public beta in the near future, but it will probably take a few weeks before the software changes are made available officially.
