Summary
- Genmoji is Apple’s generative image AI program for creating emojis, which can result in both delightful surprises and horrifying oddities.
- Genmoji sometimes gets it right, sometimes misses the mark, and occasionally creates disconcerting emojis that nobody would want.
- For best results, experiment with your descriptions, peruse all of the results, try iterating on existing emoji, and keep your prompts light on detail.
Apple’s Genmoji is the first generative image AI program I’ve enjoyed thanks to the restraints of emoji’s simple designs. Of course, this being AI, things still get odd in ways both wonderful and horrifying. Here’s my journey through Genmoji in images.
What Is Genmoji?
Genmoji is Apple’s term for its generative AI emoji creator on iPhone 16, 16 Pro, and 15 Pro models, with M-series macOS support on the way. It was introduced as part of Apple Intelligence’s second wave update (iOS 18.2), which largely focused on integrating generative AI features into iOS.
Genmoji is tucked away under the keyboard’s emoji menu, so it’s easy to overlook it if you don’t know where to look in the first place. However, it’s well worth having a play around to see what you can come up with.
In my mind, Genmoji falls under three categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly (or, better put, disconcerting). I think you’ll catch my drift after seeing my creations.
The Good
These are the Genmoji that I’d be proud to share! In some cases, the generative AI surprised me with its execution of my concepts, while other times it gave me things I didn’t even know I wanted.
This was the first Genmoji I generated, initially discerning that the fun would be getting people to guess what I generated (I gave up on that game quickly). What I didn’t expect was the smiling face on the taco, which made it strangely adorable and a mainstay in my emoji rotation.
The dog face emoji has historically been one of my most used, but I always wished Apple would’ve offered up a variety of breeds. Well, Genmoji let me take matters into my own hands and generate that classic emoji in the visage of a Maltese.
Dog needs a walk? This Genmoji allows me to convey exactly that without typing it out to my partner. It also doubles as a dog in a cute sweater, which everyone likes (if you don’t, you may just be AI yourself).
I’ve been addicted to the Pokémon TCG Pocket mobile game ever since its late October release, which led me to generate cards for the mascots of its launch booster packs: Pikachu, Mewtwo, and Charizard. I’m impressed at how well it nailed the form factor of a trading card!
While on the topic of Pokémon, this map that looks like it was pulled straight out of the franchise’s early games is impeccable. There’s actually a treasure trove of RPG maps in different styles in Genmoji’s cyber-brain, most of which I came across after throwing “final fantasy” into the generator. More on that prompt shortly.
I genuinely don’t remember what I put into the generator to get this result for a Christmas mouse—I definitely didn’t intend to have random soft serve ice cream in there—but it comes together adorably. As long as we ignore the human feet.
This is another “final fantasy” creation, and far from the last we’ll see. I don’t know exactly what the AI was going for here, but it looks like a cat invading a Yoshitaka Amano Final Fantasy logo illustration, and that’s novel enough for me to give it the thumbs up.
The Bad
These are some real stinkers. Either they completely failed to capture my prompt, added in unwanted elements, or just made me say, “Yep, that’s AI alright.”
When I used “VR headset” as a prompt to signify that I was in The Grid (using my Meta Quest 3), I didn’t expect it to shoot back this. The eye swirls are fun, but the teeth (or whatever those are) most definitely aren’t. Please get this Genmoji some immediate medical attention.
AI took the liberty of adding a speech bubble to this simple Genmoji depiction of me. To be more precise, a speech bubble coming out of my shoulder while I look on, fraught with horror. I guess props for doing a pretty good job nailing how I look, though.
No, I can’t remember the prompt for this. Moving on.
If you notice a mouse theme, it’s because my partner works with them. This angry mouse seemed like a good idea to help her convey vocational frustrations, but it all falls apart when you notice the fists are coming out of its cheeks and are shaded differently than the head.
Speaking of my partner, this one was so close to being a nice representation of her. The AI decided she should be angry, though, which is a strange vibe considering my goal was exactly the opposite. It doesn’t help that her hand is morphing into the disembodied mouse’s head. Suffice it to say, she never saw this one.
The reason I repeatedly used the term “final fantasy” was to form an emoji RPG party. These are my results, which are fine but uninspiring. I’m also unsure why Genmoji thinks every RPG-related prompt should exclusively focus on anthropomorphic cats.
The Ugly
Some of the “bad” emoji are visually ugly, but “the ugly” are rotten to their core. This is the disturbing nightmare fuel that no mortal mind would create. Honestly, knowing what unspeakable Genmoji lie ahead of you, I wouldn’t be offended if you clicked away before it’s too late.
When I thought about generating a “living sushi” Genmoji, I knew exactly the twisted humor/horror I was signing up for. And yep, as you can clearly see, that’s what I got! It’s executed at such a high quality that I can’t help but be impressed. At the same time, the implications are deeply unsettling, and it definitely shouldn’t exist.
Remember my praise of the dog in a sweater? Well, my initial attempt at a take-the-dog-out Genmoji was a dog in a harness. The AI couldn’t contextualize this prompt as referencing a dog harness though, so instead it gave me an endless array of dogs in horse harnesses. In fact, this is arguably more horse than dog. Why would you allow this, Apple?
I was able to overlook the human feet on the mouse in holiday garb, but this has nothing going for it to bail it out. It doesn’t help that the feet are bigger and more pronounced in their human features here.
I knew the prompt “thinking brain” would generate some weirdos as it’s just explaining what a brain does. Turning a traditional emoji face into a brain was beyond even those expectations, though. Trying to comprehend how half its brain-body is exposed as an actual brain just hurts my own brain.
Speaking of brains, that’s also how AI envisions itself. A prompt of “AI” brought up this cybernetic brain fused with the stem of an organic one, almost as if pronouncing itself to be an upgrade to humanity. I didn’t realize my morbid curiosity would result in a singularity-level threat.
This smiling emoji came up first with every “AI” prompt. At a glance, it just looks like a standard smiling emoji, yet it’s anything but. That wide smile feels sinister, those eyes dead. This is the uncanny valley of emojis and it’s unnerving, especially after the stunt it pulled by showing me its cyber-brain.
We’ll end on one last “final fantasy” prompt. My initial take was that this was cool on account of bringing Safer Sephiroth (the final boss of Final Fantasy VII) to mind. However, knowing that this is now the face of AI presenting itself as an all-powerful entity, I am frankly scared to ever use Genmoji again.
Tips For Making Your Own Genmoji
Congratulations, you made it through the freak show. Maybe it’s got you wanting to try your hand at making some Genmoji for yourself (or, understandably, maybe not). There are a few tips I’ve learned that can help you achieve good results.
Use descriptive language of the image you want to see generated and be ready to play with that language. For example, for the Taco Bell Genmoji, I initially typed “Taco wearing a bell hat”, which resulted in a bell-style hat. I changed my query to something like “Taco with a bell on top of it” and got what I wanted.
Take a moment to scroll through the results. Sometimes your language is correct, and it just takes the AI a few tries. By this same measure, this is how I landed on some of my worst creations, which is its own gift or curse depending on your outlook.
Creating variants of existing emojis tends to yield good results. For example, the Maltese dog face Genmoji is a direct spin on the classic dog face emoji. This also results in an emoji that others can quickly understand by its association with the original.
Remember that detail is the enemy of emoji. While I love the RPG map emoji that I generated, it’s not actually particularly usable in text messaging.
Lastly, don’t ask AI to generate an image of itself as I did. There’s plenty more horror where that strand of Genmoji came from.
I’m not the only one who’s obsessed with this tool. For some, Genmoji is the best Apple Intelligence feature.
