Are all those smiley-face emoji just not creative enough for you? On Monday at its WWDC conference, Apple announced a new twist called Genmoji. When this update arrives in the fall for iPhone Messages in iOS 18, users will be able to use generative AI to create innovative — and perhaps bizarre — emoji, and then use them in messages.Â
One Apple example showed a smiley-face emoji with cucumber slices over its eyes, as if it’s spa day inside The Emoji Movie. Another showed a tutu-wearing T-Rex on a surfboard, while yet another showed a squirrel DJ. Apple suggest you use that last one to complain about noisy squirrels outside your window.
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You can also use AI to choose a photo of the friend you are texting and turn it into an emoji. You can then share that as a sticker, a tapback response to a text message, or drop it inline in your message thread.
Image Playground expands on AI images
And in case Genmojis don’t offer enough creative imagery, Apple also announced a new feature called Image Playground. It will let users use generative AI to create images for use in Messages, in Apple’s Freeform and Pages apps, and in a new Image Playground dedicated app.
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The images shown are obviously cartoon-inspired, which seems intentional, since there’s been much controversy about AI-manufactured images that are realistic enough to fool people into thinking they’re real.
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