The Unicode Consortium just published the artwork for nine brand-new emoji, and here’s the part nobody tells you up front: you can’t use them yet. Not this month, not this fall on your current phone. The characters get finalized in September, but Apple and everyone else need time to draw and ship their own versions.
So mark your calendar for next year.
According to the information out now, the batch is expected to land on iPhones alongside iOS 27. That’s the release cadence Apple has stuck to for years, and it’s why a design that’s technically approved in a few weeks won’t reach your keyboard until a full software cycle later.
What you’re actually getting
Nine emoji. That’s the count from the Unicode Standard and Research Working Group, the body inside the Consortium that decides which little pictures the rest of the industry agrees to support.
The lineup: two new hand signs, one face, a butterfly, a fishing net, a meteor, a lighthouse, a pickle and an eraser. Plain, everyday symbols, the kind that quietly do the most work in a text thread.
The two hands you’ll probably use most
The headliners here are the two thumb signs, one pointing left and one pointing right. Officially they’re the Leftwards Thumb Sign and the Rightwards Thumb Sign.
If you’ve ever wanted a thumbs-up that gestures sideways instead of straight up, this is the addition that fills the gap. It’s a small thing. It’s also the kind of small thing people reach for constantly once it exists.
A cracked smile and a monarch
The new face is the Cracked Smiling Face, a grin with a fault line running through it. Read it however your group chat reads it.
There’s also the Monarch Butterfly, which is a specific species and not just a generic bug, and that specificity matters if you’ve ever wanted the orange-and-black one instead of the blue butterfly that’s been the only option.
The odd ones out
Then come the characters that make these lists fun. A meteor. A lighthouse. A fishing net, listed as Net with Handle. An eraser. And yes, a pickle, a standalone Pickle emoji that’s exactly what it sounds like.
None of these is going to change how you type. But each one closes a gap somebody flagged, and the pickle in particular has been a running request in emoji circles for a while.
Why the wait is the real story
Here’s the timeline that trips people up. The emoji release happens in September. The actual availability on your phone does not.
Every platform, Apple, Google and the rest, takes the approved specification and builds its own artwork on its own schedule. That’s why the same emoji can look one way in Messages and another way on an Android phone, and it’s why these nine won’t be usable everywhere at once.
The report points to iOS 27 as the arrival window for iPhone, with Android handsets following on their own timelines. So if you’re waiting on that sideways thumb, don’t hold your breath before next year’s software update. When it does land, it’ll be a classic keyboard addition, ready to drop into texts, posts or anywhere else you want it.
