How to create emojis in iOS 18? Discover fun customization tips

Emojis have become an integral part of our daily communication. They not only add color and personality to our messages but also help convey emotions, ideas, and tone more effectively. As a developer, creating custom emojis can be a fun and challenging task that requires knowledge of iOS development tools and techniques.

Introduction

Emojis are small images that represent emotions, objects, or ideas. They are widely used across different platforms and cultures, including social media, messaging apps, and websites. In iOS 18, Apple introduced new features and tools that make it easier for developers to create custom emojis.

In this article, we will discuss the following topics:

• Emoji One
• EmojiKit

Understanding Emoji Unicode Standard

Before we dive into creating custom emojis, it’s important to understand the basics of the Unicode Standard. The Unicode Standard is a system that defines the characters used in all modern computers and mobile devices, including emojis.

Each emoji is represented by a unique number called a code point. This code point is used to render the emoji on different platforms and devices.

Creating Custom Emojis in iOS 18

Setting up the project

To create a custom emoji in iOS 18, you need to have Xcode installed on your Mac. Once you have Xcode, follow these steps to set up your project:

1. Open Xcode and create a new project.
2. Choose “App” as the template and click “Next”.



3. Name your app and choose the “Swift” language.
4. Click “Create”.

Designing the emoji

Now that you have set up your project, you need to add the necessary dependencies to your project. In this case, we will be using the SwiftUI library for designing our emoji.

+ Building and exporting the emoji

Converting Your Emoji to a Unicode Scalar Value

To make your custom emoji available for use in other apps, you need to convert it to a Unicode scalar value. To do this, you can use the `Image(systemName:)` initializer of SwiftUI’s `Image` view and pass in the desired Unicode code point as an argument.

Adding Your Custom Emoji to Other Apps

To make your custom emoji available for use in other apps, you need to add it to their project as a new asset. Here’s how to do this:

1. Open the project of the app where you want to add your custom emoji.
2. Go to the “Assets” folder and create a new folder called “Custom Emojis”.
3. Inside the “Custom Emojis” folder, create a new file called “YourEmoji.png” and copy the PNG image of your custom emoji to this file.
4. In your app’s `Info.plist` file, add a new key called “CFBundleExecutables” and set its value to the name of your app (without the “.app” extension).
5. Add a new key called “LSUIElement” and set its value to “YES”.
6. Save the changes to your `Info.plist` file.
7. Open Terminal and navigate to the directory where your app is located.
8. Run the following command to export your custom emoji as a PNG image:

xcrun simctl run <UDID> -w /path/to/your/emoji.png

Now your custom emoji is ready for use in other apps that have added it as a new asset, making it available for use in their projects.

Summary

In this tutorial, we learned how to create custom emojis for iOS using SwiftUI in Xcode. We covered the basics of the Unicode Standard and showed you how to design and export your custom emoji as a PNG image. We also demonstrated how to add your custom emoji to other apps as a new asset, making it available for use in their projects.