Earlier today, Appleunleashed the next stageof its AI-driven vision for the iPhone. Powered byApple Intelligence, iOS 18.2 comes with a number of exciting features, including Image Playground, Image Wand, Visual Intelligence, and advancedChatGPTintegration.
Among these changesis a quirky and fascinating tool which Apple calls Genmoji. Essentially, the feature allows you to write out a prompt, after which the system will generate custom emoji designs for you. This generative technology happens entirely offline, which means that it functions even without an active internet connection.
iOS 18.2 is available now, and it packs actually useful Apple Intelligence features
The next major wave of Apple Intelligence is officially here: Say hello to iOS 18.2.
How to build your own custom emoji design in iOS 18.2
Genmoji is powered by Apple Intelligence
To start crafting your own custom Genmoji designs, follow these steps:
For now, Genmoji only works within first party Apple apps, including Messages. If you try and send a Genmoji via WhatsApp or Snapchat, as an example, it’ll get automatically converted into sticker format. Over time, I expect third-party apps to adopt Genmoji within their own apps.
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Is Genmoji the next big thing in text-based communication?
This is Apple’s second attempt at reinventing the humble emoji we all know and love
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Apple experimenting with the little smiley emoticons and symbols known as emoji – the company introducedMemojialongside theiPhone Xin 2017, serving as a tech showcase for the then-newFace IDbiometric system.
Memoji remains an excellent display of just how accurate and performant the Face ID tracking system is. In practice, however, the feature’s appeal remains rather niche. Considering the popularity of stickers across various messaging services, as well asUnicode’s never-ending supply of fresh designs, I can see Genmoji becoming a major hit.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Apple experimenting with the little smiley emoticons and symbols known as emoji.
Google, for its part, seems to agree. Built within its popularGBoardvirtual keypad app for Android, the search giant has introduced its own emoji-making experiencecalled Emoji Kitchen. Similar to Genmoji, Google’s implementation allows you to mash up various emojis into new and unique designs. What makes Apple’s version stand apart – for the time being at least – is its generative AI capabilities for added flexibility.
