About

Genmoji refers to a feature in iOS18 that uses generative AI to produce custom emojis based on a user's text input. The pivot towards AI-generated emoji was part of Apple's larger Apple Intelligence campaign at the 2024 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which sought to integrate artificial intelligence across the tech company's products, applications and platforms. Shortly after the event took place in mid-June 2024, discourse, memes and other posts circulated online about the Genmoji announcement, with some finding the feature interesting while others criticized it.

History

Emoji are a series of small Unicode-based images representing various concepts that originated in Japan but spread internationally throughout the 2000s. In 2011, Apple added an Emoji keyboard to iOS5, giving users the option to communicate using the symbols.^[1]

At the WWDC Apple event on June 10th, 2024, the company announced the debut of Genmoji, a new set of AI-generated capabilities and an accompanying interface for the composition of unique emojis by users.^[2] The reveal of the new tech was quickly covered by media outlets that same day (example seen below).

Features

On June 10th, 2024, Apple highlighted a variety of possible Genmojis in the WWDC presentation, including a squirrel acting as a DJ, an emoji face with cucumbers over its eyes in the style of someone at a spa and a bagel sandwich. X / Twitter users like @theapplehub posted about these new AI-made Emojis that same day, receiving over 16,000 likes in five hours.^[3]

The Genmoji interface centered around typing in text and then allowing the AI to generate a corresponding custom-made emoji. The new features will roll out with the new iOS18 operating system in the summer of 2024 and come preloaded in future versions of the iPhone.

Highlights

Some users were highly critical of the new Genmoji idea as it spread online in mid-June 2024. For example, on June 10th, 2024, X user @R3H8T received over 2,100 likes in a day for their post (seen below) criticizing anyone who might send a Genmoji to them.^[4]

Others were more enthusiastic about it. For example, tech reviewer and YouTuber Marques Brownlee posted about the possible use of Genmojis by young people on June 10th (seen below), earning 11,000 likes in the course of five hours on June 10th.^[5]

Search Interest

External References