How to Make Your Own Emoji on iPhone (Memoji, Genmoji, or Any Photo)
The emoji keyboard has more than 3,800 characters and somehow never the one you need: your dog, your face mid-laugh, the inside joke your group chat has been running for a year. You cannot add a character to the keyboard itself, but you can make your own emoji stickers and use them in almost every chat app. This guide covers what Apple gives you for free, where those tools stop, and how to make a custom emoji from a selfie, a photo, or a few words with Pixmoji.
The short version
- A cartoon of yourself, Apple style: Memoji, built into iMessage. Fixed look, no photos, iMessage only.
- An emoji from a text description: Genmoji, if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer with Apple Intelligence. Older iPhones cannot use it.
- Any photo, any selfie, any idea, in whatever look you describe, on any iPhone with iOS 15 or later: Pixmoji. Make it once, share it to iMessage, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat.
"Custom emoji" really means a sticker
Emoji are Unicode characters, the same on every phone, approved by a standards body once a year. Nobody can add a new one to the keyboard, not even Apple outside that process. What people mean by a custom emoji is a small transparent image, a sticker, that you send inline in a chat. Stickers work in iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, and most other messaging apps, and on the receiving end they look like an emoji-sized picture. Every method below produces a sticker.
Option 1: Memoji, the built-in avatar
Open any iMessage conversation, tap the Memoji button above the keyboard, and build a face from hair, eyes, glasses, and so on. iOS then generates a set of expressions you can send as stickers. It is free and it is fine, but it has three limits: everyone's Memoji looks like the same style of cartoon, it cannot start from a photo, and it does not do pets, objects, or ideas. It is also awkward outside iMessage.
Option 2: Genmoji, if your iPhone supports it
Since iOS 18.1, Apple Intelligence can generate an emoji from a text description straight from the emoji keyboard. It is well integrated, but it requires an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, or newer. On an iPhone 15, 14, 13, or an SE the option simply is not there. Genmoji also sticks to Apple's emoji look, so you cannot ask for an anime portrait or a cute chibi version of your cat.
Option 3: Make your own emoji with Pixmoji
Pixmoji is an AI emoji and sticker maker that starts from whatever you have: a selfie, a photo, or a sentence. It works on any iPhone with iOS 15 or later, and with Text to Emoji the look is up to your words: cartoon, anime, cute, or anything else you describe.
From a selfie
- Open Pixmoji and choose Image to Emoji.
- Take a selfie or pick one from your library. Face the camera in even light with your whole face in frame.
- Tap generate. Your emoji appears in a few seconds.
- Save it to your library, or share it straight to the chat you are in.
From a photo
Choose Image to Emoji, pick a picture of your dog, your coffee, your friend, and Pixmoji turns it into a clean sticker with the background removed and an illustrated finish. Photos with one clear subject work best. Our guide on turning a photo into a sticker goes deeper.
From words
Choose Text to Emoji and describe what you want: "tired but happy", "tiny astronaut waving", "orange cat with sunglasses". Short and specific beats long and vague, and the look goes in the same sentence: "orange cat with sunglasses, anime style". See text to emoji for prompt ideas.
Using your emoji in chats
- iMessage: Pixmoji stickers appear in the sticker drawer, so you can tap to send or drag one onto a message bubble. Step by step in adding custom stickers to iMessage.
- WhatsApp: add the sticker to a pack and tap Install Pack, and the pack appears in your WhatsApp sticker tab for every chat.
- Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat: share as an image or paste it into a story or comment.
- Android friends: stickers arrive as small images, so they work across platforms.
Make a set, not just one
A single emoji is fun for a day. A set of eight reactions in the same style, yes, no, laughing, shocked, eye roll, thumbs up, crying, celebrating, becomes the way you talk. Generate them from the same selfie with different expressions in the prompt, keep the same wording for the look, and save them together in your library so they are one tap away.
Tips for a better emoji
- Light matters more than the camera. Face a window, avoid harsh overhead light and shadows across the face.
- One subject. Crop out other people, busy backgrounds, and hands in front of the face.
- Try two or three expressions. A grin, a gasp, an eye roll from the same session give you the start of a set.
- Generate more than once. Each run is a fresh take. Keep the best two and delete the rest.
- Keep expressions big. Emoji are small on screen. A slight smile disappears, a grin reads.
Quick answers
Can I make my own emoji on iPhone?
Yes. Pixmoji turns a selfie, a photo, or a text description into a custom emoji sticker on any iPhone with iOS 15 or later, and it is free to download. Apple's Memoji covers avatar-style faces inside iMessage, and Genmoji generates emoji from text on iPhone 15 Pro and newer.
Can I add a custom emoji to the emoji keyboard?
Not as a keyboard character. Emoji are a fixed Unicode set. Custom emoji are sent as stickers, which work in iMessage, WhatsApp, Instagram, and most chat apps and look the same size as an emoji in the conversation.
Do I need an iPhone 16 to make custom emoji?
No. Apple's Genmoji needs an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, but Pixmoji works on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 15 or later.
Can I make an emoji of my pet?
Yes. Use Image to Emoji with a clear photo of your pet and generate. Pets with a simple background give the cleanest stickers.
Will my custom emoji work on WhatsApp and Android?
Yes. Add it to a pack and tap Install Pack, and the pack is added to your WhatsApp sticker tab. Friends on Android receive it as a sticker or a small image, depending on the app.
Make your first emoji
Pick a selfie, tap generate. Download Pixmoji, free to download, and send your first custom emoji in the next minute.