Apple to Give IPhone Its Own ‘Emoji Kitchen’
Emojis are a fun evolution of the old emojis, but you can only choose from a certain number. While a few new ones are added each year, most of the time what you see is what you get, which is why Android’s ” Emoji Kitchen ” is so good.
The feature allows you to combine two emoji to create a completely new one, right on your device. If you want to send a winking face, but with a robot emoji, you can. You can make a skull emoji cry with laughter, or turn a pizza slice into a rocket. The feature multiplies the limited but significant pool of emojis into a staggering number of varieties.
While Emoji Kitchen is now automatically included on Pixel devices , it’s not even on the iPhone, at least not in the latest official software release, iOS 18.5. However, with iOS 26 , which is currently in beta, Apple has created a feature similar to Emoji Kitchen that uses Apple Intelligence to mix multiple emoji or Genmoji together to create a new icon.
This feature didn’t get as much attention as some others during the iOS 26 WWDC presentation , but it looks like a fun use of Apple’s AI.
How to Mix Emoji and Genmoji on iOS 26
To try out this feature, you’ll need iOS 26 on an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone (i.e. iPhone 15 Pro or later), though since the beta is still in its early stages, I don’t recommend you try it right now .
Once iOS 26 is up and running, open the emoji keyboard, then tap Genmoji. Here, you’ll see a new Suggestions section that offers a range of emojis for you to choose from. If you don’t like the suggestions, you can select Show More to see different emoji categories, including Themes, Expressions, Costumes, Accessories, and Places. As Emojipedia points out , these categories include icons that aren’t standard emoji, like a race car helmet and a flower wreath.
However, if you want to mix up certain emoji, just tap the grey “emoji +” icon. This button will open the emoji keyboard, so you can choose any options you like, in addition to any text suggestions you’d like to add. You can add up to six “concepts” (emoji and suggestions) per generation, so you can really mix things up – although you may find that using fewer suggestions produces results closer to your intended design.
From here, Genmoji will begin generating new emojis from your selection, and you can scroll through the different options it presents. While the app hides the emojis and suggestions here, you can tap on the image to see what concepts it was created from. If you like the generation, tap the checkmark, and Genmoji will automatically enter it into the text box for you to share.