Apple Unveils AI-Generated Bitmoji: A New Era of Personalized Avatars

An exciting new feature powered by Apple Intelligence is set to debut in iOS 18, allowing iPhone users to generate AI images of the people they’re messaging, much like an upgraded version of Bitmoji. This innovative functionality aims to enhance your "everyday conversations," as highlighted by Apple during its announcement at WWDC 2024.

With Apple Intelligence, you'll have a contextual understanding of your messaging interactions. If you wish to personalize your chat experience, you can create a custom AI image instantly.

For instance, Apple showcased the ability to create a celebratory AI Bitmoji of a friend’s birthday featuring a cake, balloons, and flowers. In another example, a mother was illustrated in a superhero cape, capturing her child's admiration. Initially, this feature will offer three artistic styles: sketch, illustration, and animation.

This concept bears similarities to a project developed by ex-Snap researchers with their startup Easel, which represents a new generation of digital avatars. The image generation capabilities will extend beyond messaging; users can create visuals within other applications like Notes, Freeform, Keynote, and Pages.

During the keynote, Apple also introduced Genmoji—a tool that enables users to create AI emoji-style images from their Photos library or design custom emojis. These Genmojis can be utilized as stickers for Tapback reactions or incorporated directly within messages.

Additionally, Apple unveiled Image Playground, which will also be available as a standalone app and API for developers. This tool lets users produce images based on themes, costumes, accessories, locations, and more. You can select various elements, and within moments, the Apple Intelligence feature generates a preview of your image—no advanced prompts needed.

Users can easily switch through image previews and create additional images, choosing between styles like sketch, animation, and illustration. Apple Intelligence will also propose concepts related to your ongoing conversation, all while ensuring that processing remains on the device.

Beyond image generation, Apple Intelligence will facilitate various tasks across apps, such as retrieving files from last week or finding photos of a specific person. You might even ask it to play a podcast that was recommended to you earlier. With its deep understanding of apps and their functionalities, this feature is designed to provide personalized context for your interactions, integrating details like Calendar appointments and traffic information from Maps.

In addition to these advancements, Apple also announced updates to Siri and unveiled macOS Sequoia during WWDC 2024.