iOS beta adds 118 new emojis and people are already obsessed with one in particular

Where would we be without emojis?

They're there when we just can't put our words into, you know, words.

And now, our digital vocabulary looks to be getting a whole lot bigger - thanks to new incoming emojis.

According to Emojipedia - which calls itself 'the world's #1 emoji reference site' - a whole lot of new options have landed on iOS 17.4 beta.

X / @Emojipedia

And we're not just talking about a handful of emojis - but a whopping 118 new additions.

"These 118 additions consist of six brand new emoji concepts, four new non-gender-specifying family emojis, and new direction-specifying versions of six existing people emojis that amount to 108 new emojis when gender and skin tone variations are accounted for," wrote Keith Broni for Emojipedia.

They're all drawn from Unicode's September 2023 recommendations - and people are particularly loving one potential add: a fiery phoenix.

It's the emoji we never knew we needed - while phoenixes might not come up much in normal conversation, it's certainly a cool addition.

And people have been rushing to X, formerly known as Twitter, to voice their excitement.

X / @AuroraMatrix

"A PHOENIX EMOJI?? Well, yes!" one post read, while another said: "Really feeling the phoenix emoji right now. Rebirth!"

Other upcoming emojis include a mushroom, a broken chain and a lime slice - perfect when paired with the cocktail emoji.

Those - and two head-shaking emojis - are all set to be brand new, but the rest are building on existing ones. This includes new non-gender-specifying family emojis - building on the existing family emoji designs - and new directions for the walking and running emojis.

But bad news if you were rushing to your phone to start using the new options. At the moment, it's in beta - meaning it's only available for developers.

According to Emojipedia, the rest of us can expect to get the new drop later this spring - which could mean around March or April.

And before you start planning your messages now, Emojipedia also added: "As with all beta software, designs are subject to change prior to the final release, as has been seen within the beta releases for iOS 15.4 and iOS 12.1."