Apple has confirmed that its next major iPhone update is coming in April: iOS 18.4. It will have plenty of new stuff in it, though not the updated Siri which has been delayed, Apple has just announced. However, there will be more than half a dozen new emoji, which is always welcome news. Here’s what’s coming.
A New Smiley
You may have thought that there really were no new smiley faces to be added to the world of emoji without being really obscure (though I’d be up for faces that successfully conveyed glib puzzlement, wistful nostalgia or the mildest of disdain).
But no, there’s now Face with Bags Under Eyes, which to me sums up how I feel, at least at the end of a working week. It looks remarkably tired, but oddly the weariness for me is evoked more by the heavy lids above the eyes, and the eyebrows which signal that there’s a lot more to be done before you can relax. Oh, the ennui.
The Fingerprint
This is a timely one: we’re all concerned about identity theft, so this can signify that. But it also works to suggest somebody’s involvement in something. “His [fingerprint emoji]
is all over it.”
The Splatter
Modern art or a mess? You decide. Can also be used to suggest a collapse of some kind.
Root Vegetable And Leafless Tree
The first looks like a radish to me and the second suggests a dead tree in a barren landscape. Oddly, both a tree and a radish are mentioned in Waiting For Godot, so maybe there’s a Beckettian overlay here. Samuel Beckett was Irish, of course,so the next new offering may have resonance, too.
The Harp And The Shovel
Two utilitarian images, both useful in their own ways, ready to be employed literally or figuratively. “He needs to clear his [Splatter emoji] up soon [Shovel emoji].” The harp is a great Irish symbol so it may be adopted widely in Ireland as soon as it’s released.
Sark Flag
Finally, there’s a flag. It’s for the island of Sark, part of the Channel Islands. It’s the setting for Mervyn Peake’s brilliant novel Mr Pye and to this day it’s illegal to drive a car there. Tractors, bicycles and horse-drawn vehicles only. Perhaps the subtlest way to suggest someone is a bit behind the times.
