Expectations for WWDC haven’t changed much, except this odd rumor from Mark Gurman:

One standout feature will bring generative AI to emojis. The company is developing software that can create custom emojis on the fly, based on what users are texting. That means you’ll suddenly have an all-new emoji for any occasion, beyond the catalog of options that Apple currently offers on the iPhone and other devices.

This sounds like emoji in the same way that a random audio file without an RSS feed is a podcast. The technical bits matter. Emoji is special because it’s just text and portable everywhere.

@manton It’s a sticker, not an emoji.

@manton I wonder if this will be Apple’s personalized Memoji adjusting to show different emotions.

@manton well, that's one part of emoji, sure. It's also a type of icon and style. A png of a tomato emoji will still be referred to as an emoji. It might not technically work like an emoji on a text protocol level, but if you have a feature to 'design custom emoji' it’s still valid if it just outputs images.

@sdw @manton plus I’m imagining this would work like a sticker in iMessage, so it wouldn’t be text anyway in that scenario

@manton it sounds like an expansion of Apple’s whole stickers thing which they’ve been iterating on for years.