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What is a Genmoji? Apple AI emojis explained

Apple’s iOS 18.2 update is imminent, meaning it won’t be long until iPhone users in the UK get their paws on Apple Intelligence

One of the most fun new features coming to iOS with this update is Genmoji. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about this feature, including what a Genmoji is, how it works and which phones will get the feature. 

What is a Genmoji? 

A Genmoji is a custom emoji created by generative AI. The feature is exclusive to Apple devices, allowing iPhone users to generate highly specific emojis to fit almost any situation imaginable. 

The feature is one of Apple’s new AI features, powered by the company’s own Apple Intelligence smarts. To create a Genmoji, all you need to do is type a short description of your desired emoji (i.e. ‘Disco ball pigeon’ and Apple Intelligence will do the rest of the work for you. You can even create Genmojis that depict friends and family based on their contact photos. 

iPhone 16 Pro Genmoji

Once generated, Gemojis function like any other emoji. This means you can include them in messages, share them as stickers or react to another person’s message with your Genmoji in the form of a Tapback. 

Which iPhones will get Genmoji? 

Genmoji is an Apple Intelligence feature, meaning only a select few iPhones (so far) can run the feature. 

You can create Genmojis with iOS 18 on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and any phone in the iPhone 16 line-up as soon as iOS 18.2 lands on your phone. Presumably, the iPhone 17 and beyond will also support this feature at launch. 

Sadly, the standard iPhone 15 and older models will not be receiving Apple Intelligence with this update or any future updates.

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