Update your iPhone NOW: Apple releases iOS 17.4 with 118 new emoji, including a lime, a phoenix and four gender-neutral families – here’s how to download it to your smartphone

iPhone users just received a major update as Apple launches iOS 17.4.

The update brings major changes to iMessage security, upgrades to the Podcast app, and 118 new emoji.

Among them are a lime, a phoenix, a brown mushroom, a broken metal chain, two shaking heads and four sex neural families.

There are also more than 100 side-facing people of varying skin colors and genders, including some with canes and others in wheelchairs.

Here’s how to download the latest iOS 17.4 update to test the new emojis yourself.

The update brings 118 new emojis from the latest release of Unicode, the central bank of all approved emojis.

The vast majority (108) of the new characters are new ‘directional’ versions of the six existing person emojis.

This includes side-facing people of different skin colors and genders, including some with canes and others in wheelchairs.

Meanwhile, four new gender-neutral families take the form of silhouettes, similar to the previous ‘Bust in Silhouette’ and ‘Busts in Silhouette’.

Apple’s gender-neural family emojis are white on a light blue background and consist of two parents and one child, one parent and two children, one parent and one child, and two parents and two children.

In addition to the new emojis, several changes are coming in response to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) – a new law aimed at removing unfair advantages from tech giants.

Under this law, Apple is required to allow developers to create and launch their own app stores for iPhone devices and offer apps through them.

Notably, Epic, maker of the popular game Fortnite, will launch its own Epic Store this year, allowing European users to download games to their phones.

The update also allows apps to use the iPhone’s contactless payment system for services other than Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

These big changes will only be available in the EU, so UK users won’t see any changes in the App Store.

All users around the world are receiving a major security update for iMessage.

iOS 17.4 introduces a new encryption system called PQ3 that is designed to protect users from so-called ‘Harvest Now, Decrypt Later’ attacks.

In these attacks, criminals collect user data in the hope that they will one day be able to crack the code if they have access to quantum computing.

In addition to these changes, iPhone users will also get some additional functionality and improvements to a number of apps.

The Podcast app can display live transcripts of any podcast in English, German, French or Spanish.

Users can search for a specific word or phrase in the transcript to find their place in the podcast and tap on a word to start playing from there.

The iPhone 15 can also display more information under the ‘Battery Health’ settings, including the number of cycles, date of manufacture and when the battery was first used.

Finally, the music recognition feature introduced in iOS 14.2 allows users to add songs directly to their Apple Music library or playlists.

How to download the update

The iOS 17.4 update is compatible with the same range of iPhone models as iOS 17 – all newer than the iPhone

To download the update, open your iPhone and navigate to the Settings app.

Select ‘General’ and then press ‘Software Update’.

The rollout of the update may be gradual in some regions, but UK and US users should be able to see the prompt to download the update.

Make sure the battery capacity is at least 50 percent, otherwise you won’t be able to start downloading.

It may also be better to leave your phone charging during the update to ensure the battery doesn’t drain during the process.

You need at least 8.2 GB of free storage space. This is not used up by the update, but is necessary to get started.

To save space, you can ‘Offload’ apps under the ‘Storage’ settings. This will save the app’s data online until you need to download it again.