New emoji are coming to your iPhone soon, and while you’ll have to wait for iOS 14.5 to drop to start using them, we just got a sneak peek in the latest iOS developer beta.
The iOS 14.5 beta 2 rolling out beginning today to developers introduces a handful of new emoji while improving the designs of others. New to the mix are the mending heart, heart on fire, face exhaling, face in the clouds, and face with spiral eyes—an emoji that I feel a deep spiritual connection with after months of limited human interaction. The update will also include a diverse set of couples emoji, a woman with beard emoji, and a person with beard emoji.
Most of these are fairly straightforward, though I’ve got questions about Apple’s particular take on the face in clouds emoji—which looks markedly different from Unicode’s read on an expression of absentmindedness. Behold, Apple’s take:
I mean, I invite you all to share your thoughts in the comments. All I’m saying is that it appears we got not just one, but two weed-related emoji with this update.
Beyond the new emoji, iOS 14.5 will polish some older emoji, most noticeably replacing the headphone emoji—which for several updates remained a basic black—to look more like its recently debuted AirPods Max. This new emoji has oversized aluminum earcups, a mesh headband, and even a slight sheen, just as the Max headphones do.
The syringe emoji has also been redesigned. Before, the syringe contained red liquid, or blood, because the emoji represented blood donations as well as vaccinations. But the new emoji looks a lot less, well, true to life. The syringe now contains a pale blue liquid and the needle isn’t as prominent. And frankly, it’s probably not a terrible idea to soften the emoji representation of vaccines at a time when it’s critical that as many people as possible be willing to get them.
Lastly, Apple added helmets to its person climbing, woman climbing, and man climbing emoji. Apple wasn’t the only platform to exclude helmets from these emoji, but this certainly feels like an improvement. Safety first, you know?