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Report: Apple to upgrade Genmoji in iOS 27 with new automatic suggestions – 9to5Mac

by admin May 17, 2026

by admin May 17, 2026 0 comments

According to the Power On newsletter from Mark Gurman, Apple is planning an interesting new Genmoji feature in iOS 27 to bolster its usage: suggested Genmoji’s based on your photo library and keyboard history.

Genmoji debuted in iOS 18.2 as part of the initial Apple Intelligence rollout. The premise was simple: using image generation models, users can type in a quick prompt and make whatever emoji they’d like to have, and the system would try to create something that resembled the style of an emoji using your prompt. It was okay, though it certainly has some large misses at times.

Apple expanded it in iOS 26 with deeper customization and the ability to mix two emojis, and it sounds like the company will be taking it a step further in iOS 27, with suggested Genmoji:

Now, for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, Apple is planning a small change that it seemingly hopes will increase adoption of the feature: Suggested Genmoji. “Suggested Genmoji are created from your photos and your commonly typed phrases,” reads a new toggle in the keyboard settings of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. The capability will be optional in the next iPhone and iPad software update.

This feature could be pretty cool if it’s implemented well, especially if the models are able to understand context and make truly relevant Genmoji suggestions instead of just random ones.

I do slightly worry about how most people will perceive a feature that automatically generates new emojis using your photos and keyboard history, but luckily, Apple is allowing users to turn off this feature if they’d like to.

It’s unclear if Genmoji will still rely entirely on on-device models in iOS 27, but given the fact that there’s no mention of an image model upgrade, that may still be the case.

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