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iOS 26 Getting Custom AI-Generated Message Backgrounds, Generative Shortcuts and 'Mixmoji'

I hope that this all goes beyond a lick of paint. There's a lot of bloat in the UX with various modalities for multitasking, Today views, notification views, App Library, menus etc which could and should be consolidated to be more simple and consistent.

Almost more than the UI change I want to see them clean this up, and then fix lots of bugs and focus on software quality again.
 
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Have to see how beneficial AI powered shortcuts can be. Customizing message backgrounds will be nice. Waiting to hear about all the features on Monday!
 
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It’s getting harder to stay optimistic about Apple. If the company can’t convince me soon that iOS is clearly better than Android, I’ll likely switch back to Android as my primary device. I want to stay within the Apple ecosystem—it really does offer unmatched integration—but there’s a limit to how much loyalty can compensate for stagnation.

While Google is focused on advancing generative AI to make everyday life easier, Apple seems more concerned with things like adding new emojis. I use Gemini on my iPhone frequently, but I hardly use any of Apple’s AI features—aside from occasionally asking Siri to make a call.

Just yesterday, I was chatting with Gemini about my cat and asked it what its cat’s name was. It replied, “Siri.” I couldn’t get it to do the same today, but it felt like Gemini was poking fun at Apple’s assistant. Meanwhile, Apple appears to be more interested in renaming operating systems and designing emoji updates.

📱 iOS Updates Featuring New Emojis (2019–2024)​

  1. iOS 13.2 (October 2019): Introduced 59 new emojis, including gender-neutral options and accessibility-themed symbols.
  2. iOS 14.2 (November 2020): Added 117 new emojis, such as a ninja, boomerang, and transgender flag.
  3. iOS 14.5 (April 2021): Included 217 new emojis, featuring mixed skin tone options for couples and updated syringe and headphone designs.
  4. iOS 15.4 (March 2022): Introduced 37 new emojis, including melting face, biting lip, and heart hands.
  5. iOS 16.4 (March 2023): Added 21 new emojis, such as a shaking face, pink heart, and jellyfish.
  6. iOS 17.4 (March 2024): Included several new emojis, like a phoenix, lime, and broken chain.
  7. iOS 18.2 (December 2024): Introduced “Genmoji,” allowing users to create personalized emojis using generative AI.
  8. iOS 18.4 (April 2025): Added 8 new emojis, including a harp, shovel, and an “exhausted” face.
 
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Kottu said:
It’s getting harder to stay optimistic about Apple. If the company can’t convince me soon that iOS is clearly better than Android, I’ll likely switch back to Android as my primary device. I want to stay within the Apple ecosystem—it really does offer unmatched integration—but there’s a limit to how much loyalty can compensate for stagnation.

While Google is focused on advancing generative AI to make everyday life easier, Apple seems more concerned with things like adding new emojis. I use Gemini on my iPhone frequently, but I hardly use any of Apple’s AI features—aside from occasionally asking Siri to make a call.

Just yesterday, I was chatting with Gemini about my cat and asked it what its cat’s name was. It replied, “Siri.” I couldn’t get it to do the same today, but it felt like Gemini was poking fun at Apple’s assistant. Meanwhile, Apple appears to be more interested in renaming operating systems and designing emoji updates.

📱 iOS Updates Featuring New Emojis (2019–2024)​

  1. iOS 13.2 (October 2019): Introduced 59 new emojis, including gender-neutral options and accessibility-themed symbols.
  2. iOS 14.2 (November 2020): Added 117 new emojis, such as a ninja, boomerang, and transgender flag.
  3. iOS 14.5 (April 2021): Included 217 new emojis, featuring mixed skin tone options for couples and updated syringe and headphone designs.
  4. iOS 15.4 (March 2022): Introduced 37 new emojis, including melting face, biting lip, and heart hands.
  5. iOS 16.4 (March 2023): Added 21 new emojis, such as a shaking face, pink heart, and jellyfish.
  6. iOS 17.4 (March 2024): Included several new emojis, like a phoenix, lime, and broken chain.
  7. iOS 18.2 (December 2024): Introduced “Genmoji,” allowing users to create personalized emojis using generative AI.
  8. iOS 18.4 (April 2025): Added 8 new emojis, including a harp, shovel, and an “exhausted” face.
Click to expand...
The Unicode Consortium introduces new emojis annually and Apple incorporates support for them like other platforms do. It's a tedious argument that it's all they focus on, and just plain wrong that it's all they're concerned about.
 
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Apple have become so unbelievably obsessed with fluff. No substance at all. Seriously, what truly revolutionary improvements have they made in any area of computing etc in the past decade? But at least the shares prices are rising………and Tim is more wealthy than ever.
 
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MacRumors said:
Apple has other AI features in the works, such as an Apple Intelligence-powered version of the Shortcuts app. Apple could call the new Shortcuts option "Generative Shortcuts," and it appears it will use natural language to help users create powerful multi-step shortcut actions.
Click to expand...

This sounds like a useful addition. Honestly? As an intensive iPhone user, I notice that Apple has been focusing on the wrong things in recent years. The number of bugs in iOS is increasing alarmingly to the point where I notice something almost daily, such as not being able to quickly and properly connect your Airpods Pro to your iPhone, screen freezing, sometimes even when someone calls you. Siri, well, let me not even start about that...

What I seriously don't understand about Apple is that a company with access to billions and billions of dollars doesn't just decide to make an integral generous bid on a service like Perplexity or Notion AI and integrate this service fully into their iOS and OSX. That would solve it, every Apple user could immediately use AI in numerous areas, but the two most important ones right now being text generation and information retrieval as well as document composition.

Specific 'add ons' that will always appear can still be purchased by users through third-party apps.

iOS and OSX would become very attractive to users this way, provided all bugs are finally addressed.

But, in my eyes, futilities like an animated background, a series of new emoticons/emojis, are all things that i never use nor will ever use. Also, the 'creation' of a picture for a chat conversation is cumbersome, i would almost say childish, and not something i can take seriously.
 
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Love-hate 🍏 relationship said:
What a joke

I might look into Android. Super disappointed
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With Android you can usually turn that 54!t off. Not so much with Apple who force animation fades down your throat still. I could still use the 6S if Apple removed all animations and other graphical nonsense in the iOS release. Now I just use Android which supports el cheapo phones.
 
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mrat93 said:
Maybe I’m alone in this but I think Genmoji is the best AI feature in iOS 18. Glad to see it getting better.
Click to expand...
I forgot that it was there after the first week to be honest.

Ability to summarize long emails and long web articles are my favorites.
 
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Hopefully different backgrounds will help people realise when they’re typing a response in the wrong thread. Actually, if Apple really want to do something useful with AI, how about trying to detect when a reply looks like it’s to the wrong person and warn you before sending?
 
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Joseph C said:
The Unicode Consortium introduces new emojis annually and Apple incorporates support for them like other platforms do. It's a tedious argument that it's all they focus on, and just plain wrong that it's all they're concerned about.
Click to expand...
You missed the whole point. What is so sad is that emoji are the prime innovations coming out of Apple according to the media press. If there were other things Apple was doing besides losing the AI war, the press would be on it. They are not. When emoji are the prime news of the day, it means Apple is failing.
 
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Joseph C said:
The Unicode Consortium introduces new emojis annually and Apple incorporates support for them like other platforms do. It's a tedious argument that it's all they focus on, and just plain wrong that it's all they're concerned about.
Click to expand...
The Unicode emoji working group is vice-chaired, and previously was chaired, by an Apple employee, and most of the new emoji proposals aren’t external, but come out of that working group. Effectively, Apple and Google are jointly steering and deciding about new emojis.
 
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MasterControlProgram said:
Actually, if Apple really want to do something useful with AI, how about trying to detect when a reply looks like it’s to the wrong person and warn you before sending?
Click to expand...
It’s difficult to balance false positives and false negatives though, people would likely quickly get annoyed. Look how (not) well the notification summaries worked.
 
Wow so maybe AM will get AI generated visualisations then keeping up with the latest tech trends from 2001 will finally be complete
 
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