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How to create a new emoji in iOS 18

What are Emojis?

Emojis are small digital images or icons that are used to represent emotions, ideas, or objects. They have become an integral part of our daily communication, and there are currently over 3,000 official emojis in the Unicode Standard.

Creating a New Emoji in iOS 18

To create a new emoji in iOS 18, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Xcode App

  2. Next, create a new file in Xcode by clicking on the “+” button at the top left corner of the screen. Select “New” from the dropdown menu, then select “File”. Choose “Custom UIView Subclass” as the template and click “Next”. Name your file, such as “MyEmoji”, and click “Create”.

  3. Once you’ve created a new file, it’s time to design your emoji. Open the new file in Xcode and start by creating a new view controller that will host your custom emoji. You can use Interface Builder or code to create this view controller.

  4. Next, you’ll need to design your emoji using graphics software such as Photoshop or Illustrator. Create an image of your emoji that is 16×16 pixels in size, which is the standard size for emojis. Make sure to save the image as a PNG file with transparency.

  5. Once you have your emoji designed, import it into Xcode by dragging and dropping it onto your project.

  6. After designing your emoji, it’s time to export it for use in iOS. To do this, select the view controller that hosts your emoji and go to File > Export As > Property List. In the Property List editor, click on the “+” button at the bottom left corner of the screen to create a new key-value pair.

  7. In the key field, enter “CFBearableEmojiData” and in the value field, enter the binary data for your emoji. To convert your image file into binary data, you can use a tool such as Image2Bin or EmojiKit.

  8. Once you’ve entered the binary data, save your Property List file. This file will be used to import your custom emoji into iOS.

  9. Creating a New Emoji in iOS 18

  10. To import your custom emoji into iOS, follow these steps:

    1. Connect your iOS device to your computer using a USB cable.

    2. Open the Xcode app and select your project from the list on the left side of the screen.

    3. Go to Target > Build Settings and scroll down until you find the “Embedded Content” section.

    4. Click on the “+” button at the bottom left corner of the screen to create a new entry.

    5. In the “Kind” field, enter “Custom”.

    6. In the “Path” field, enter the path to your Property List file.

    7. Click “Save” to add the custom content to your project.

  11. Now that your custom emoji is imported into iOS, you can test it out by opening the Emoji keyboard on your device and searching for your new emoji. If everything was done correctly, you should see your custom emoji in the search results.