APPLE’S boss is loving a festive emoji that you’ve probably never seen.
The Sun asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about his top emoji during a chat at the company’s flagship store on London’s Regent Street (read and watch our full Apple interview here).
He revealed that he’d made a festive emoji using AI – and there’s a new iPhone feature that’ll let you do it too.
It’s courtesy of the Genmoji feature that’s part of this week’s Apple Intelligence update for your iPhone.
The Genmoji feature lets you create almost any emoji that you can dream up – and then you can share them with pals, just like regular icons.
“I’ll tell you one that I just created,” the Apple CEO told The Sun.
“I love the Christmas decorations in London. I feel so much in the Christmas spirit coming here.
“The city is decorated like no other and so I created a Big Ben Christmas – try it out, it’s terrific.”
Genmoji was announced back in June at Apple’s big WWDC event in California.
It’s one of the new Apple Intelligence features that uses generative AI to solve everyday problems – a bit like ChatGPT.
Apple’s boss is visiting the UK this week, timed in with the roll-out of the new Apple Intelligence features.
They’re part of the iOS 18.2 update that arrived on Wednesday.
“It means that generative AI is coming to your iPhone, your iPad, and the Mac, and it’s going to be in all of the apps that you use every day, like Mail and Messages and Notes,” Tim told The Sun, speaking at one of Britain’s most iconic Apple stores.
“So it’s deeply integrated and you will experience it and it will make a profound difference in your life.”
He added: “It will profoundly change how you use your iPhone.”
We’ve got all the details on how to try Genmoji yourself below.
There are a few things you’ll need to set up ahead of time.
Firstly, you’ll need to update your iPhone to iOS 18.2.
Just go to Settings > General > Software Update to see if you’ve got a download available – or if you’ve already installed it.
Then you’ll need to make sure that you have an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence.
The list of models that currently offer Genmoji are:
You’ll also need to go into Settings, then choose Apple Intelligence & Siri, and make sure to toggle the feature on.
Once that’s all done, you’re ready to start making whatever emoji you’d like.
Go into a text field. It doesn’t really matter where, but opening up a chat in Messages is probably the simplest way.
Then tap on the smiley face or the globe icon to bring up the emoji keyboard.
Now tap the new smiley face icon with a plus symbol – you’ll see it at the top-right of the keyboard.
Next, enter a description for what you’d like your emoji to look like.
Here's what you'll need to do...
Deleting a Genmoji is easy, and only takes a few seconds.
Go into a text field, then tap on the smiley face or globe icon to switch into the emoji keyboard.
Then swipe right or tap the Stickers button.
Tap the Stickers button, then touch and hold a Genmoji, then choose Remove.
Apple says another way is to tap the plus icon in a Messages chat, tap Stickers, touch and hold a Genmoji, and then tap Remove.
Picture Credit: Apple
Tap the Done button and your iPhone will generate Genmoji.
Swipe through the selection, tap add, and then you can use Genmoji to your heart’s content.
A clever trick is creating a Genmoji based on a photo.
If you go into the Photos app and look under the People section, you can add names to individuals.
Then when you’re creating a Genmoji, you can name that person in the emoji prompt and they’ll be wrapped into the icon.
For instance, Apple uses the example of “Danny celebrating his 35th birthday”, but you can be as creative as you like.
