Using Genmoji On Your iPhone In iOS 18.2

The Genmoji Apple Intelligence feature of iOS 18.2 allows you to create custom Emoji characters and objects using AI.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's take a look at using Genmoji on your iPhone. So a new feature of iOS and iPad OS 18.2 is an Apple Intelligence feature that allows you to create your own emoji characters. Now keep in mind your iPhone or iPad has to be compatible with Apple Intelligence. You can check this URL here to see if your model is compatible and then also check in Settings to see if you have Apple Intelligence there and you have turned it On. 
Now the idea behind Genmoji is similar to that of Image Playground and Image Wand. You can create images by just describing them. But these images look like little emoji characters and they work like them too being inline with text. You create them in the keyboards. So you have to be in an app where you're using the keyboard like, for instance, here I am in Messages. In Messages I can tap on this button here to switch to emoji characters. Sometimes if you've got more than one keyboard this little icon appears as a button next to the spacebar instead. When you go in here you have access to all the different standard emoji characters and other things like stickers, Memoji and Animoji. Now Genmoji is added to that as well. 
To create Genmoji what you would do is use this button right here. But you could also start by describing the emoji that you want to use and see if there are already a standard one that exists or maybe you created a Genmoji previously that fits that description. So I'm going to tap in here and I'm going to describe what I want. Here I'm looking for a face with a confused look on it and I can see what is there as standard emoji characters. But let's say I want to create my own. At this point I can tap this button here and it is going to keep that description as it goes into the Genmoji creation interface. So with this here, this is the first idea it is proposing. If instead I were to just tap here without describing anything then it will go here and it will wait for me to type. Once I've typed something then it will generate the first idea. I don't have to just take that idea or not. I can also swipe over to the next one and keep going. You can see it has generated four here. But if I go to the fourth one it's going to generate a fifth idea. So I can keep going and see what it comes up with. It's going to try to vary the ideas a lot so you can end up with lots of stuff, some of which may not be what you want, but it is going to keep trying things. 
So let's say I find something that I think is cute and I want to use it. I can simply now tap it and it will insert it as a character in my message here. Not only that, but if I go in the emoji list here, I go to Stickers which is the second item here, you can see it has actually added it as a sticker. So Stickers now are Stickers & Genmoji. So I can easily use this again without having to recreate it. 
Let's try again. Let's say I want to create a tree and I look and I see the ones that are available here as a standard emoji characters. But I have something different in mind. I want it to look more like, say, a maple tree. So I'll type maple here. Then I'll ask it to create a Genmoji. I can tap here but also here, this appears if it can't find anything to match that. Either way it goes to this interface here and it is going to try to create this Genmoji and it comes up with various different ideas. Here's a maple tree that looks like a maple leaf. Here is a maple leaf all by itself. Maybe this is something more of what I want. Sometimes it creates these emojis that are these boxed pictures. I can keep going through and see which emoji best represents the concept that I want to express. So let's say I want to choose this one here. 
Now one of the things I can do is tap these three buttons here and I can just Copy it, so not use it here in Messages but go into another app. I can Share it. I can Save it to Stickers, so I can just save it and not use it. I can also add captions. If I look at the caption now it is just the description I had. But if I alter this now and then Saved it, then when I search for an emoji character it would reference this caption description here and hopefully find the emoji that I saved. 
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Now you can't use this to create just anything. It primarily will do four different kinds of things. One is it will create a kind of emoji face. You can, sometimes, just get this naturally when you ask for an expression or something. But if you use the word face it seems to always want to generate one of those. The second is you can create a little character usually from the shoulders up that looks like an emoji. We're going to look at that in a minute. The third thing it can do is create objects like the tree there or some kind of food or anything you can think of. Sometimes those little box pictures that show a little scene. But you can't use it for somethings, like for instance, it doesn't seem to ever generate full body images or people doing actual actions. Things like that. So it is not a full AI image generator. It just generates emoji-like images. 
So let's go and ask it to create something that would describe a person. In this case it gives us some examples here of real emoji. But let's go here and create a Genmoji. It is going to create something here and you can see it puts a person there. Now where does it get this little character from. Well, you'll notice under here when it identifies that you're trying to show a person, this little person button. If you tap that it takes you to this list. The list allows you to choose a person. That first one is to choose something that looks like a standard kind of emoji person. Then after that it is going to show you a list of all of the people it finds in your Photos Library. So you can choose one of those as well. So, for instance, if I wanted this to look like me I can choose me right here and I can even tap Edit and then select the photo of me I wanted to use. Then tap Done. Now it is going to create a character that doesn't look like a standard looking emoji character but instead looks, kind of, like me. I can still flip through and try to choose different versions of this. 
Now if I go back here to the person button and then I choose emoji then it will go back to using the standard emoji character. But I can also tap Edit and now I can choose the type of appearance I want and the skin tone. So you could go through these and choose the type of emoji character you want. You can even choose the standard emoji yellow type characters like that and Done. Done again. Then you'll get an emoji based on that. So it doesn't always have to be based on somebody in your Photos Library. It will add this character here to the message and then notice it will also now appear in the Stickers. 
Now, of course, you can use these in Messages but you can also use them as Tapbacks and as Stickers. So, for instance, if you wanted to do a Tapback for this message here you can tap and hold it and you have this button right here, this little emoji button, you tap that and now you can add an emoji as a Tapback. Those emoji would include those Genmoji characters you've created. In addition, you can use them as Stickers. So one way to do that is to bring them up here in the keyboard and to Drag & Drop onto a message as a Sticker. But you can also tap and hold a message and then add Sticker and then go to your Stickers there and add one of the Genmoji you created like that. 
Now you can also use Genmoji in other places. They work equally as well in the Mail App. So here in Mail I can use one of the ones I created or create a new one. Like let's say this one right here. You can see it inserts it in the message. They also work in the Notes App as well. So I can add the existing one here to the Notes App, for instance. You can use these to liven up your notes with little objects and emoji characters. 
Now a lot of other apps, you'll find, can't yet use Genmoji. I expect more apps to be adding this as they update using the latest iOS Text Engine. But like if I'm here in Pages and I go to use one you see that they do appear. But if I try to insert it, it actually is going to insert it as an inline image. Pages has had inline images forever. So you can certainly use them the same way here. You'll find that these even work in Pages on the Mac because they are just inline images and Pages can handle those. 
So how these work in other apps really varies. Sometimes they work just like they do in Messages on the iPhone. Sometimes they work like inline images. Sometimes they don't appear at all. In cases where you're sending a Genmoji to somebody if they've got something compatible on the other end like they are also using an iPhone with 18.2, then they'll see them just like you sent them. But if they're using an older version of iOS or they are using an Android phone they see them as just regular images. But they will see them. 
Some other tips here. If you ever want to Delete one of these it works just like a Sticker. So when you're viewing your emoji like this you go to your Stickers and you'll see one of them here and say I want to delete this one. You tap and hold for a second and you can tap Delete.
When creating Genmoji don't be afraid to keep editing the text. Try different things. For instance I might not get what I want when I first type something. So then maybe I'll just Edit it until I get something I like. Sometimes it helps to just describe things in different ways, use different adjectives, maybe rearrange the words a bit until you eventually get something you can use. Other times it is more useful to just describe a basic concept of what you want to express instead of trying to picture what you want in your mind and trying to get it to display exactly that. 
I found that Genmoji is not only useful in messages but as pieces of clipart. For instance, I do a monthly newsletter of things happening in my area and I use little emoji characters instead of bullets in front of each event. But sometimes I can't find an emoji to fit the event. But now with Genmoji I probably can. So even if you don't use emoji very much while texting you'll find that Genmoji can be used in a variety of different ways. I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 5 Responses to “Using Genmoji On Your iPhone In iOS 18.2”

Dan Wieder

4 months ago

I watched this video this morning. I can run this in Notes, but not in Messages. That option isn't there. I do have an extra keyboard (TextExpander), so the emoji icon is next to the space bar as you mentioned. But when I select that, all I get are the regular emojis and not the genmoji option. I am running ios 18.2 on an iPhone16.

Sheldon

Thanks bunches

I figured out my problem. My cursor was still in the address portion of a new message. When I clicked in the actual message part of a new message and then clicked on the emoji icon I got the genmoji interface. Just a user error. :-)

Robert van Lier

2 months ago

You said "…this little person button. If you tap that it takes you to this list. … Then after that it is going to show you a list of all of the people it finds in your Photos Library."

However the list I get is limited to 10-13 people from my Photos library. There doesn't seem to edit the list. and it is well small than those named in the Photos library. Is there a way to edit the list that you've found?

Gary Rosenzweig

Robert: Not that I can see offhand. Experiment, but maybe it just chooses ones where it has a clear face or something.