Once a year, the emoji collection on our smartphones is expanded – and now it’s that time of the year again. The new emojis for WhatsApp, Instagram, and others are ready to debut. We show you which new emojis will be added in 2026 and when they will appear on your phone.
Emojis have long been part of everyday life. Around 3,700 symbols are currently available on smartphone keyboards — and the selection continues to grow every year. The next update has been released. What are the new emojis that await you? Find out below, or you can reminisce about last year’s emoji update.
These New 2026 Emojis Will Grace Your Device
A total of nine new symbols will appear on your device in the coming weeks. As always, the designs differ slightly, depending on whether you use an iPhone, a Samsung device, or a specific app.
What’s new?
- a distorted face
- a comic “battle cloud” symbol
- a ballet dancer (with selectable skin color)
- an apple core
- an orca/killer whale
- a hairy creature (similar to Bigfoot)
- a trombone
- a rockfall/landslide
- a treasure chest
When Will These New Emojis Appear?
It won’t be long before the new emojis arrive.
iPhone: Apple will deliver the new emojis with iOS 26.4. The update will be available from March 31. As soon as you install it, these new emojis will automatically appear on your keyboard.
Android: On Android devices, updating the keyboard app is usually sufficient. This usually happens automatically. However, you can also check the Play Store manually: Select your Profile picture on the top right → “Manage apps and devices” → “Updates”. The update for Google’s Gboard is also expected at the end of March.
If you use an alternative keyboard, it may take a little longer depending on the developer. In addition, some apps, such as WhatsApp, use their own emoji sets. This is why emojis often look different there than on Instagram or the operating system.
Here is an important point: If you or your chat partner has not yet installed the update, new emojis may appear as boxes with a question mark (“[?]”).
How are New Emojis Created?
New emojis are selected once a year by the Unicode Consortium. Anyone can submit suggestions. The most popular ideas will be selected from the submissions, and sample designs will be worked on. Manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, or Google then implement these in their own style and distribute them via updates accordingly.
