iOS 18: Genmoji Lets You Create Your Own Emoji

Apple’s new iOS 18 operating system for iPhone includes a new AI feature for the Messages app that lets you create your own emoji characters to send to friends and family.

The feature is called “Genmoji” and it’s part of iOS 18’s suite of Apple Intelligence AI features.

iPhone users can use prompts, one example Apple gave was “t-rex wearing a tutu on a surfboard,” to instantly create unique emoji characters.

These aren’t the only emoji coming to iPhone in iOS 18. The Unicode Consortium recently revealed new emoji characters and most, if not all of them, should come to iPhone in an iOS 18 update from Apple.

In total, the Consortium previewed seven new emoji characters. And while they haven’t been finalized just yet, we expect all of them to receive approval.

The seven emoji characters under consideration right now include the following:

• Face with bags under eyes
• Fingerprint
• Leafless tree
• Harp
• Root vegetable
• Shovel
• Splatter

The beta review period for these emoji lasts until July 2nd. After that, Unicode 16 will be released and the new icons will gain approval.

The emoji likely won’t be ready for iOS 18’s initial release in the fall which means we’ll probably see them deployed in an iOS 18 milestone release (iOS 18 x.x) in late 2024 or early 2025.

Apple most recently brought new emoji characters to iPhone with iOS 17.4. The iOS 17.4 update was released back in March of this year.

If Apple utilizes similar timing, iOS 18.4 would be the update that delivers these emoji characters to iPhone users around the world.