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

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

Genmoji debuted in iOS 18.2 as part of the initial Apple Intelligence rollout. The idea was simple: using image generation templates, users could enter a quick prompt and create the emoji they wanted, and the system would try to create something that resembled the style of an emoji using your prompt. It was good, although there are certainly big hiccups at times.

Apple expanded it in iOS 26 with deeper customization and the ability to mix two emojis, and it looks like the company will go even further in iOS 27, with the Genmoji suggestion:

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

This feature could be quite interesting if implemented well, especially if the models are able to understand the context and make truly relevant Genmoji suggestions instead of just random suggestions.

I’m a little worried about how most people will perceive a feature that automatically generates new emoji using your photos and keyboard history, but luckily Apple lets users turn this feature off if they want.

It’s unclear whether Genmoji will still rely entirely on in-device templates in iOS 27, but given that there’s no mention of an image template upgrade, that could still be the case.

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