Genmoji Creatures Roam Free Following iOS 18.2 Release

Yesterday iOS 18.2 was released, bringing with it the official launch of Apple's much-anticipated Genmoji feature. Social media users with eligible devices have been exploring the feature, with the creation of various new animal emoji designs seemingly first on the agenda.

Keith Broni

• 4 min read
Genmoji Creatures Roam Free Following iOS 18.2 Release

Yesterday iOS 18.2 was released, bringing with it the official launch of Apple's much-anticipated Genmoji feature. Social media users with eligible devices have been exploring the feature, with the creation of various new animal emoji designs seemingly first on the agenda.

Want to create your own Genmojis? Follow our hands-on guide here.

Looking for a Genmoji alternative without device-based restrictions? Check out Emojipedia's AI Emoji Generator tool - now available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand & Norway.

🦁 The Emergent Genmoji Animal Kingdom

Below is a sample of the animal-based creations that folks across X (fka Twitter) and Bluesky have been sharing.

As you'd expect, dogs have considerable representation:

Happy iOS 18.2 day! Loving Apple Intelligence’s GenMoji feature! 🤣 #iOS #iPhone #Apple

[image or embed]

— Othernine (@othernine.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 8:14 PM

This is true not just on Genmoji, but also on the related Image Playground feature within iOS 18.2:

Amongst other Genmoji and Image Playground creations, we've spotted a version of viral baby hippo sensation Moo Deng:

We've also seen several creatures eating:

Some brandishing weapons:

Finally with Genmoji I can raise the woodland critter army of my dreams

[image or embed]

— martin (@gaymerbadger.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 7:31 PM

One attempting to give Tony Hanks a run for his money:

Gemoji in iOS 18.2 rock. Here's one it created of a lobster on a skateboard:

[image or embed]

— That Guy with the Loud Dogs🏳️‍🌈🐶🐶 (@scokato.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 7:31 PM

A Zebra wearing sunglasses (alongside an Image Playground avatar):

Some results have, of course, received a mixed response:

What is this abomination made by apples genmoji

[image or embed]

— Evermore’s #1 Fan (@evermores-1-fan.swifties.social) December 12, 2024 at 2:43 AM

An attempt to create a version of a trademarked pocket monster, with so-so results:

On BlueSky, a new buttery design inspired by the platform's own logomark:

Bluesky butterfly? #Genmoji

[image or embed]

— Meem (@mohandis.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 7:04 PM

Have you seen any more cute creature creations made with Apple's Genmoji feature?

Let us know via X, Bluesky, Threads, or Mastodon.

🤔 What are Genmojis anyway?

While Genmoji creations will be treated like emojis within many apps in iOS 18.2, they are not emojis as have come to understand them over the last decade plus.

As we described in our hands-on article, from a technical perspective Genmojis differ considerably from the standardized emojis that have been a core feature of various devices' keyboards for over a decade.

Our traditional emojis are drawn from recommendations made by the text encoding and standardization organization Unicode: they adhere to a text-based standard of codepoints and sequences, with their colorful designs implemented through our devices' font systems.

Genmojis are not based on any standardized text-based encoding or font system. Instead, they are images with an emoji-like aesthetic generated based on users' descriptions being fed into an AI art model Apple manages.

They are being treated like emojis within Apple's ecosystem (e.g. iMessage, Notes) thanks to iOS 18's NSAdaptiveImageGlyph API.

However, while Genmojis will act like emoji characters within Apple's ecosystem, within most external platforms - such as the posts on X and Bluesky highlighted above - they will appear as image file attachments/embeds or image stickers.

📶 Release

iOS 18.2 is available now as a free software update for the following Apple devices:

  • iPhone 16 / iPhone 16
  • iPhone 15 / iPhone 15 Plus / iPhone 15 Pro / iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • iPhone 14 / iPhone 14 Plus / iPhone 14 Pro / iPhone 14 Pro Max
  • iPhone 13 / iPhone 13 mini / iPhone 13 Pro / iPhone 13 Pro Max
  • iPhone 12 / iPhone 12 mini / iPhone 12 Pro / iPhone 12 Pro Max
  • iPhone 11 / iPhone 11 Pro / iPhone 11 Pro Max
  • iPhone XS / iPhone XS Max
  • iPhone XR
  • iPhone SE (2nd generation or later)

However, Apple Intelligence features, including Genmoji, will only be accessible on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 16 models.

Genmoji and other Apple Intelligence features are not currently available in the European Union (EU) countries or China, even on eligible devices with iOS 18.2 installed.