iOS 16.4 Emojis
The update that finally fixed the heart colours
What emoji did iOS 16.4 add?
iOS 16.4 shipped in March 2023 with the Emoji 15.0 set, and it closed one of the oldest complaints in emoji. Pink ๐ฉท, light blue ๐ฉต and grey ๐ฉถ hearts had been requested for close to a decade, because anyone wanting a soft or neutral heart had to settle for red. The shaking face ๐ซจ came in the same release and is one of very few emoji Apple animates.
At a glance
| Shipped | |
|---|---|
| Platform | Apple iOS |
| Emoji version implemented | Emoji 15.0 |
| Emoji added | 31 |
The emoji iOS 16.4 is remembered for
How to get these emoji
Emoji ship inside the system font, so there is no separate download and nothing to enable.
- Open Settings, then General, then Software Update.
- Install iOS 16.4 or any later version.
- Open any keyboard and tap the emoji button. The new characters are already in the picker.
If you send one of these to somebody on an older release, they see a blank box. The character transmits correctly either way, and appears as soon as they update.
The standard behind this release
Unicode 15.0 was published on 13 September 2022 with 20 new code points and 31 emoji once sequences are counted. It finally filled three gaps in the heart set that people had complained about for years: pink ๐ฉท, light blue ๐ฉต and grey ๐ฉถ. The shaking face ๐ซจ was the other standout, and the goose ๐ชฟ arrived carrying a surprising amount of internet baggage.
Read the full Unicode 15.0 recordFrequently Asked Questions
Which iOS added the pink heart emoji?
iOS 16.4, released in March 2023. Pink, light blue and grey hearts arrived together as part of Emoji 15.0. Before that the only soft-coloured option was the white heart, which reads quite differently.
Does the shaking face emoji move?
On Apple platforms it is drawn with motion lines rather than animated in the keyboard, though several messaging apps apply their own animation. It is one of the few emoji designed to convey movement in a still image.
What is the Wi-Fi emoji?
๐ arrived in iOS 16.4. Before it existed people pasted the Wi-Fi glyph from a symbol font, which rendered inconsistently. Having it as a proper emoji means it displays the same way everywhere that supports Emoji 15.0.