The fourth developer beta of iOS 26.4 delivers eight new emoji characters, including a treasure chest, a distorted face, and more. Here's what's new.
On Monday, a week after the release of iOS 26.4 developer beta 3, Apple unveiled the fourth developer-focused beta of iOS 26.4.
Among other changes, the beta iOS update introduces a new set of fun emoji characters, first previewed in July 2025 with Unicode 17.
To be more specific, the fourth developer beta of iOS 26.4 adds the following emoji:
- Ballet Dancers
- Bigfoot
- Distorted Face
- Fight Cloud
- Landslide
- Orca
- Treasure Chest
- Trombone
Unicode 17 also includes a new "Apple Core" emoji, though it does not appear to be available in Monday's iOS 26.4 developer beta. While Apple is ultimately responsible for adding new emoji characters to the iPhone, emoji themselves are managed and created by an entirely different entity.
The Unicode Consortium, a non-profit group that controls the Unicode standard, has said that the latest emoji additions "have long-standing symbolic meanings, are visually distinctive, and contain multitudes of expression."
Apple typically adopts new emoji in the spring of each year, several months after the new characters are unveiled by the Unicode Consortium. In March 2025, for instance, the iOS 18.4 update introduced support for emoji approved by the Consortium in 2024.
