If you think there are way too many emoji already, prepare for some bad news: there are always more emoji on the way. The emoji treadmill never stops and new emojis will continue to arrive on your iPhone until the emojiverse dies.
We now have a good idea of which emoji the conveyor belt is likely to unload next year, thanks to the Unicode Consortium’s release of the proposals currently expected in version 16.0 of its emoji list. (As of this writing, the latest set of emoji is version 15.1.) Version 16.0 is currently expected to include new emoji for:
- Face with bags under the eyes
- Digital print
- Tree without leaves
- Root vegetable (basically a beet, although turnip is included in the searchable keywords)
- Harp
- Shovel
- Splash
- Flag of the island of Sark
These emoji could be changed or removed by version 16.0 next year, but the fact that the consortium has released the list indicates that they are likely to make the list. Beyond that, however, the Unicode Consortium takes a step back and allows tech companies to manage emoji their way; Apple, Google and others will produce their own illustrations for each of the above and these may differ significantly from each other. (Most famously, Apple arbitrarily changed the emoji from a gun to a water gun in 2016, a move later followed by other companies.)
One way or another, though, you’ll probably see Beet, Shovel, and Splash coming to your iPhone in 2025 as part of an iOS 18 update. And it won’t cost you a dime.
