Apple iOS 18.4 Emoji Changelog: 8 New Emojis and Syrian Flag Update

Apple has officially launched 8 new emoji designs in iOS 18.4, introducing a paint splatter, harp, and a face with bags under eyes to iPhones, iPads, and Apple devices worldwide. The update also brings Genmoji to the European Union and features a redesigned Syrian flag emoji.

These same eight emojis are included in iPadOS 18.4, tvOS 18.4, watchOS 11.4, and macOS 15.4.

Table of Contents

What’s New in iOS 18.4

Following the preview in February’s second beta release, iOS 18.4 introduces these eight emojis:

🫩 Face with Bags Under Eyes

🫆 Fingerprint

🫟 Splatter

🫜 Root Vegetable

🪾 Leafless Tree

🪉 Harp

🪏 Shovel

🇨🇶 Flag: Sark

These additions come from Unicode’s Emoji 16.0 recommendations, released in September 2024.

No design changes occurred between beta 2 and the official release, though past updates have seen revisions. In 2023, the Troll emoji was modified during iOS 15.4 beta testing, while earlier betas featured attempted revisions to the Bagel and Peach emojis.

Syrian Flag Emoji Redesign

iOS 18.4 updates the 🇸🇾 Syria flag emoji to reflect the nation’s new de facto flag.

Apple becomes the first emoji vendor to implement this change following the Assad regime’s fall on December 8, 2024. This widely requested update features a horizontal triband of green, white, and black with three red stars on the white band.

This historic flag design, originally used between 1930 and 1958 (officially adopted in 1946), became an opposition symbol against the Assad regime from 2006 onward.

This marks the first time an emoji flag has changed following a regime change, unlike previous flag updates that followed democratic processes.

Importantly, this change applies retroactively any Syria flag emoji will display the new design in iOS 18.4, even in older messages. Since Unicode doesn’t support historical flags, users must check message dates to understand the original intent.

The Sark Flag Explained

The 🇨🇶 Flag for Sark has caused confusion among users.

In March 2022, Unicode announced it would no longer accept flag emoji proposals of any category. Yet Sark with only 500 residents received its flag.

The explanation lies in Unicode’s existing policy: they use ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes to determine valid country designations. When Sark received an “exceptionally reserved” ISO code (CQ) in February 2020, it automatically qualified for emoji flag status without requiring a formal proposal.

This represents the first new national/regional flag added through this automatic mechanism since emoji flags were formally approved in Emoji 1.0 (2015).