### The Dawn of Personalized Expression: APPLE's New AI-Powered Emoji Revolution

When it comes to technology giant news, there’s the undeniable dominance of Google, Microsoft, including OpenAI, routinely rolling out new iterations of artificial intelligence that sound freaky and futuristic. But Apple, a brand that practically created the smartphone and endlessly ushers new innovations into our lives and digital communications, one that has brought us so much sticky-thumbed delight, has felt oddly quiet in the technology sphere. That is, until now. Apple is poised to redefine how we add emphasis to our text messages once again. In a big way. This is a breaking story. Just yesterday, my Twitter feed exploded with a breathless Bloomberg Apple-report by their eminence, Mark Gurman. His tweet contained the momentous news: ‘iOS 18 will get an emoji typing feature. Anyone who uses emojis will want to upgrade.’ First of all, I am not anyone. But I do use emojis! I have been using emojis since—it’s embarrassing to admit, but it’s true—the very beginning. When they first came out in 2011, I gained widespread attention for my use of emojis in emails and nonfiction works.

### The Next Frontier: Custom AI Emojis on the iPhone

The digital dimension abounds with excitement over the latest and greatest from Apple: a generative AI with a twist – your very own custom emoji. For iOS 18, the company is offering a glimpse into the next frontier of personalised communication. This is less a race to catch up with the Joneses, and more of a race ahead.

#### How APPLE is Changing the Game

And, though no one outside of Apple knows precisely what this esoteric lorem ipsum entails, the spirit of this marquee new feature is exhilaratingly simple: a kind of generative AI that will allow iPhone users to create emojis that perfectly reflect exactly the shade of emotion or thought that they’re trying to convey, without having to limit themselves to the universal emoji repertoire.

#### Beyond the Unicode Consortium

Historically, the iOS upgrade has served as a sort of Christmas gift for Apple fans, bringing new emojis from the Unicode Consortium like the latest fingerprint and harp. But Gurman’s revelations hint at a emoji ‘personal pan pizza’ of the future, where there are still new standard emojis to be included on your operating system, sure, but where the real action is in allowing users to make as many icons as they like.

### Crafting Your Emojis: A Glimpse into the Future

You imagine how that might work: an emoji for every occasion, every feeling, created by you to your unique specifications. To concoct, even for a time, your perfect emoji from nothing more than text prompts is as tantalising as it is technofuturistic. It signals Apple’s intent to answer the user-innovation challenge.

### An APPLE Exclusive

Although emojis are not the first AI functionality from Apple, dozens of third-party services offer similar functionality, it’s notable that Apple chooses to launch this functionality natively into iOS – effectively eliminating a need for an additional subscription and keeping everything inside its ecosystem. In the race to deliver exclusive features to its ecosystem, Apple certainly seems to be getting closer to the finish line.

### The Broader Implication: APPLE and AI

While Apple’s customised AI-powered emoji might at first appear like a mere quirky feature, its willingness to engage with customised AI emoji reveals that the company is ready to make more serious advances in the development of AI. With competitors demonstrating their own AI capabilities, Apple’s emphasis on daily, denizens-of-your-iPhone AI features (‘industrial AI’) signals a desire to embody Apple’s philosophy of technology that adapts to human life, not the other way around. Apple’s design not only marks its difference but also its willingness to challenge the current status of AI application in consumer technology.

### Unveiling the Core: Why APPLE?

Reflecting on Apple’s ongoing innovations, it may be worthwhile to consider what motivates one of the world’s largest technology companies. Apple’s mission is to push the envelope, be it in the realm of tech hardware, software or – as of late – artificial intelligence. With this mantra in place alongside impeccably user-centric design thinking, Apple maintains its place as a world leader in technology.

### A New Chapter in Digital Communication

On the verge of this leap forward, it is noteworthy that Apple’s introduction of AI into the emoji typing feature of the iPhone goes far beyond a mere update. It marks a new era of digital communication: personalised and expressive. iPhone users everywhere impatiently await the time when they can stop limiting their expressive freedom with preexisting emoji and can only be limited in their creativity.

**In Closing: The Essence of APPLE**

It is almost a portrait of Apple itself: in a domain where ‘technology’ is taken to mean an external tool, Apple is the company where the tool becomes an extension of the human, where imagination and expression become an integral part of technology’s function, where doodling in an e-mail becomes something more than a gimmick. IOS 18’s customised emoji fits right in with that history, which is more about innovation, adventure and spontaneity than any slavish devotion to rules and standards. When I say that ‘Apple is where technology gets more interesting’, I mean a shift in direction, where my brand loyalty points me away from the ordinary and to the extraordinary.