Apple held its first big event of 2022 on Tuesday to reveal the new iPhone SE, iPad Air, and Mac Studio. The company also confirmed that the final version of iOS 15.4 will roll out next week. The first iOS 15.4 beta debuted in late January, bringing a number of significant new features to iPhone. We’ll cover those features later, but emoji fans will be thrilled to know that iOS 15.4 also includes 37 new emoji characters and a few updated emojis.
iOS 15.4 introduces 37 new emojis
As Emojipedia noted in January, these emojis first appeared in Unicode’s recommendations from September 2021. Every year, Unicode recommends new characters for release. Apple, Google, and others then pull from that list and add to their own libraries. This cycle, Apple has plucked 37 new emojis from the Emoji 14.0 collection.
Here’s the full list of new emojis that will be available on iPhone and iPad next week:
- Melting Face
- Face with Open Eyes and Hand Over Mouth
- Face with Peeking Eye
- Saluting Face
- Dotted Line Face
- Face with Diagonal Mouth
- Face Holding Back Tears
- Rightwards Hand
- Leftwards Hand
- Palm Down Hand
- Palm Up Hand
- Hand with Index Finger and Thumb Crossed
- Index Pointing at the Viewer
- Heart Hands
- Biting Lip
- Person with Crown
- Pregnant Man
- Pregnant Person
- Troll
- Coral
- Lotus
- Empty Nest
- Nest with Eggs
- Beans
- Pouring Liquid
- Jar
- Playground Slide
- Wheel
- Ring Buoy
- Hamsa
- Mirror Ball
- Low Battery
- Crutch
- X-Ray
- Bubbles
- Identification Card
- Heavy Equals Sign
In addition to the new emojis, Apple is also adding 25 new versions of the handshake emoji with different skin tone combinations. Previously, Apple only offered five options, and their skin tones always matched. Now iPhone users will be able to mix and match.
When is the iOS 15.4 release date?
Apple did not reveal a specific release date for iOS 15.4 at its Peek Performance event. The company simply said that iOS 15.4 would be available next week. That said, we can take an educated guess about when everyone should actually be able to download it.
Virtually every iOS 15.4 beta rolled out on a Tuesday at right around 1 PM ET. Every once in a while, a beta will drop slightly later in the day or later in the week. In fact, Apple released iOS 15.3 on Wednesday, January 26th at around 1 PM.
Prior to that, Apple pushed out iOS 15.2 on a Monday. In other words, iOS 15.4 will launch whenever Apple is ready to launch it. But we’ll probably be able to download it at some point between Monday and Wednesday.
What other features are in the iOS 15.4 update?
Of course, a new batch of emojis isn’t the only highlight of iOS 15.4. The update will allow iPhone owners to unlock their phones with Face ID while wearing a mask. It also introduces the new Tap to Pay feature for merchants, anti-stalking notifications for AirTag and other Find My devices, and a fifth Siri voice for English speakers.
