If your emoji keyboard feels a little tired, Apple's next iPhone update aims to cheer it up — and it brings a few surprises beyond shiny new icons.
Apple has seeded the release candidate of iOS 26.4 to developers and public beta testers, and tucked inside are a handful of updates that will matter to anyone who texts, listens to music in noisy bars, or collects quirky pictograms.
A handful of fresh faces (and a trombone)
Among the additions arriving with iOS 26.4 are eight new emoji concepts from Unicode 17.0. Apple’s beta builds now show finished designs for the set, which includes:
- Distorted Face (a warped expression)
- Fight Cloud (the cartoon puffs you see in comic scrambles)
- Ballet Dancers (with full skin-tone support)
- Hairy Creature (the Bigfoot-adjacent cryptid)
- Orca (killer whale)
- Trombone
- Landslide (rocks tumbling down)
- Treasure Chest (stuffed with gems and trinkets)
Emojipedia notes that this beta added around 163 emoji assets in total: 13 brand-new concepts plus 150 skin-tone sequences for preexisting people emoji. The new picks come from the Unicode Consortium’s September 2025 recommendations (Emoji 17.0), and Apple’s designs are still technically subject to change before the public release.
The trombone has a backstory
One of the more charming entries — the trombone — didn’t appear out of thin air. A group of students from the Science and Mathematics Academy at Aberdeen High School in Maryland first submitted the idea in 2019, and the trombone was officially adopted by the Unicode Consortium last year. The teens designed it as a visual nod to the playful “womp womp” sound of comedic missteps, and now the tiny brass instrument will show up on iPhones worldwide. Android users already have access to the glyph.
The school credited graduates from 2020 and 2021 — including Brendan Althoff, Brandon Brown, Dillon Capalongo and others — with the submission and design work. It’s a neat reminder that emoji proposals can originate from classrooms as much as from designers' studios.
Shazam in Control Center gets smarter (and more patient)
iOS 26.4 doesn’t stop at pictures. Apple also upgraded a much-used music tool: the Control Center’s Shazam recognition can now work offline. If you tap Recognize Music when cellular or Wi‑Fi is flaky, your iPhone will capture the audio data and queue the identification. When the device regains an internet connection it will deliver the result automatically.
That solves the familiar problem of hearing a song you want to identify while stuck in a spotty connection zone — the phone won’t simply fail and forget the clip.
When will you see this on your phone?
Beta testers already have access to the emoji art and the offline Shazam improvements. Historically, once Apple issues a release candidate it rolls out the final update to all users within a few days to a few weeks; iOS 26.4 is expected to reach the wider public in late March or early April.
If you’re impatient and live on the beta track, these features are already findable in the developer and public betas. Otherwise, keep an eye on Software Update in Settings over the next few weeks.
A little context on how emojis arrive
New emoji characters must pass through the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit that standardizes text and emoji across platforms. Unicode approved the Emoji 17.0 list in 2025, and platforms (Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.) then create their own visual interpretations. Fun fact: Unicode opened public submissions for new emoji ideas in 2025, so anyone with a clever concept can try their luck when the Consortium reopens its intake.
These updates are small in scope but wide in reach: new emoji designs appear in chats, social apps, and anywhere emoji are used, and the Shazam tweak quietly improves everyday life for music fans. Oh, and if you want to practice a dramatic trombone face for your next text — the emoji’s on its way.
