Just when it seemed like there couldn’t possibly be any more emoji, a viral tweet has claimed that more could be on the way.
In a post that has been viewed almost 11 million times, an X user claims that Apple is planning to release eight new emoji of famous female artists.
According to the account Drop Pop, these emoji would be coming to iPhone as part of the iOS 18.5 software update.
While the tweet has now been revealed as a hoax, that hasn’t stopped music fans going wild over the proposed icons.
On social media, Apple users flocked to share their excitement, with one fan predicting: ‘They will be the most used emojis’.
However, not everyone was so enthusiastic, and many commenters pointed out that the celebrities’ appearances seem to be more than a little out of date.
One commenter asked: ‘Did they make these in 2014 and only decide to release them now?’
So, can you guess which celebs these are supposed to be?
A viral post claims that eight emoji of famous female artists could be coming to iPhone, but can you tell who they are supposed to be?
In a post seen by almost 11 million people, the account Drop Pop claimed that Apple was planning to release the eight new emoji in iOS 18.5
While the post has been revealed as a hoax, this didn’t prevent iPhone users from getting excited about the potential new emoji
In the viral post, Drop Pop shared what appear to be emoji of Lana Del Rey, Beyonce, Rihanna, Iggy Azalea, Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande.
While this list includes some of the most successful female artists of all time, many fans weren’t happy with the suggested line-up.
‘Where’s Britney Spears?’, one fan complained.
Another added: ‘I don’t see Billie’, referring to the singer Billie Eilish.
However, many commenters also complained that the celebs who did make it onto the list weren’t easily recognisable.
One commenter wrote: ‘Beyonce and Rihanna the only ones that look like them.’
Another chipped in: ‘I say this as someone who loves pop culture and is constantly online: Who ARE half these people? Like, literally half.’
Likewise, others pointed out that the artists’ appearances appear nothing like their current styles.
Although the emoji contained some of the world’s biggest female artists, a few fans felt like their favourites were missing
One commenter complained that Billie Eilish wasn’t included as a potential emoji
Many fans bemoaned the fact that they couldn’t recognise some of the celebrities, with one calling them ‘generic women’
‘First off… Taylor has blue eyes and longer hair currently,’ a fan pointed out.
‘Why Nicki look like that?’, asked another.
‘Notice how Lana is first… (though why did they give her a bob)’, wrote a Lana Del Rey fan.
One baffled commenter simply asked: ‘What is this, 2016?’
‘None of them look like those artists do recently though’, another agreed.
Some of the emoji’s designs were so unusual that fans were totally unable to recognise who they were supposed to be.
One social media user posted a picture of the Iggy Azalea emoji with the caption: ‘Who is this??’
While another asked who ‘the blonde’ above Ariana Grande was.
A commenter said that Beyonce and Rihanna were the only recognisable faces
Some pointed out that the celebrities’ appearances seemed to be quite dated. For example, Taylor Swift’s hair is now longer than the in the emoji
Some fans couldn’t recognise these emoji at all, with the Iggy Azalea emoji being a particular point of confusion
The emoji which caused the most confusion was the one supposedly representing Ariana Grande. This emoji appears to have been based on Ariana’s appearance during the 2010s rather than on her current style
Another joked: ‘Next to Rihanna is Christina Aguilera obviously lol’.
However, it was the Ariana Grande emoji that caused the most confusion and amusement online.
The emoji in question appears to be based on a picture of Ariana Grande from a period in the 2010s when the star sported a high ponytail and a significantly darker skin tone.
This is in stark contrast to today when the star of Wicked is now known for having blonde hair and a paler complexion.
This was not lost on social media users who leapt on the strange difference in appearance between the singer and her emoji.
One commenter asked: ‘So why they make Ari that dark?’
Others agreed, asking: ‘Why is Ariana Grande brown????’
While another joked: ‘Ari hasn’t been black since 2019.’
Many fans on X joked that Ariana Grande now has a much paler complexion, pointing out that she has changed her appearance significantly over the last 10 years
Some fans were extremely confused to see Ariana Grande presented with such a different complexion
One commenter joked that both of these emoji could resemble Ariana Grande at different points in her career
Sharing a picture of the Ariana emoji, another social media user joked: ‘This is like 14 skin shades ago’.
Unfortunately, whether you like these emoji or not, none will really be coming to iOS 18.5.
Read More
What kidney beans, pills and '100' emojis REALLY mean as code is revealed in Netflix's Adolescence
Drop Pop, the account which posted the emoji, describes itself as a ‘parody/satirical pop culture news outlet, solely and only meant for entertainment purposes’.
The account’s ‘about’ section adds that ‘nothing on this account represents factual news.’
Unicode Consortium, the body responsible for deciding the standard set of emojis, doesn’t create emoji of specific individuals so it would be extremely surprising if any celebrity emoji were planned.
Apple did just release eight new emoji for iPhone as part of iOS 18.4, but none resemble real people.
ARE EMOJIS RUINING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE?
Emojis may be a fun form of communication but they are destroying the English language, a recent study by Google has revealed.
Smiley faces, love hearts, thumbs up and other cartoon icons – rather than words – are the preferred method of communication by teenagers, who are considered the worst offenders regarding the decline in grammar and punctuation.
More than a third of British adults believe emojis are the reason for the deterioration in proper language usage, according to the study commissioned by the Google-owned site YouTube.
Emojis were first used by Japanese mobile phone companies in the late 1990s to express an emotion, concept or message in a simple, graphic way. Now, Twitter feeds, text messages and Facebook posts are crammed with them
Of the two thousand adults, aged 16 to 65, who were asked their views, 94 per cent reckoned English was in a state of decline, with 80 per cent citing youngsters as the worst offenders.
The most common errors made by Brits are spelling mistakes (21 per cent), followed closely by apostrophe placement (16 per cent) and the misuse of a comma (16 per cent).
More than half of British adults are not confident with their command of spelling and grammar, the study also found.
Furthermore, around three-quarters of adults rely on emoji to communicate, in addition to a dependence on predictive text and spell checking.
The use of emojis has seeped into our culture to such an extent that the Oxford Dictionary’s ‘Word of the Year’ in 2015 wasn’t actually a word at all – it was the Face With Tears emoji, which shows just how influential the little graphic images have become.
They were first used by Japanese mobile phone companies in the late 1990s to express an emotion, concept or message in a simple, graphic way.