Enable the Emoji Emoticon Keyboard in iOS

Emoji can add some fun to your texts and emails, and you don’t even need to download any extra software to use them. You can enable the Emoji keyboard in any version of iOS since iOS 5.

Steps

Enabling the Emoji Keyboard

  1. Understand what emoji is.
    • Emoji originated in Japan and is a set of pictographs such as smileys. The emoji keyboard offers a wide variety of icons that can be read by any device that supports the emoji character set.
    • All Apple devices with iOS 5 or later support Emoji.
    • Google Hangouts for Android and iOS also supports Emoji.
  2. Check to see if the emoji keyboard is turned on.
    • Open any app that uses a keyboard (e.g., text messaging) and tap the text bar to activate the keyboard. At the bottom left-hand side of the keyboard, next to the numbers and symbols icon, look for either a smiley icon or a globe icon.
    • If you see a smiley icon, this means that the emoji keyboard has already been turned on.
    • If you see a globe icon, press and hold the icon to see a list of activated keyboards. “Emoji” will appear on this list if it has already been turned on.
    • If you don’t see either icon, this means that your iPhone only has one default keyboard set. You will need to add the emoji keyboard.
  3. Open your Settings.
    • The Settings app can be found on your device’s Home screen.
  4. Scroll down and tap on “General” to open the General Settings menu.
    • This menu controls various general settings for your iPhone, such as date and time, language, and keyboards.
  5. Scroll down and tap on “Keyboard” to open the keyboards menu.
    • This menu controls all keyboard-related settings for your iPhone.
  6. Tap on “Keyboards” at the top of the keyboards menu.
    • This menu will list all keyboards currently activated for your iPhone, as well as the option to add more keyboards. Adding, removing, and changing keyboards is all done within this menu.
  7. Tap “Add New Keyboard…” at the bottom of the screen.
    • This menu contains every possible keyboard users can activate for their iPhones.
  8. Scroll down and select “Emoji” from the list of available keyboards.
    • “Emoji” will now appear on your list of activated keyboards.

Using the Emoji Keyboard

  1. Open a messaging program.
    • You can use Emoji in any program that you type messages in, such as Mail, iMessage, Twitter, etc. Tap on the text entry field to open your standard keyboard.
  2. Tap the smiley face button.
    • This is located on your virtual keyboard next to your Dictator button (the one with the microphone). Doing this will bring you directly to the Emoji keyboard.
    • If you have a globe button, access the Emoji keyboard by holding your finger down on the globe and then selecting "Emoji" from the list that appears. The globe button appears if you have multiple keyboard languages enabled besides emoji..
  3. Select your Emoji.
    • Once you have the Emoji keyboard selected, you can browse through all of the icons available. There are several categories to choose from. Tap the buttons on the bottom to change categories. Each category has several pages of icons to choose from. Swipe left or right to change pages.
    • Recently used emojis: clock icon; emojis that you have recently used are stored in this tab.
    • People: smiley icon
    • Nature: tree icon
    • Food & Drink: cheeseburger and soda icon
    • Celebration: party popper icon
    • Activity: running person icon
    • Travel & Places: car and buildings icon
    • Objects & Symbols: icon with assorted symbols
    • Some icons allow you to select skin tone. Press and hold the icon to see the available skin tones. Slide your finger to the skin tone you want to use and release. The emoji with your selected skin tone will appear. This skin tone will be saved as the default. [1]
  4. Send the emoji.
    • Tap “ABC” to return to your non-emoji keyboard(s) if you need to type more text. If your recipient does not have emoji support (such as an email recipient not using an Apple device), then they will see blank images.

Removing the Emoji Keyboard

  1. Open your Settings.
    • The Settings app can be found on your Device’s Home Screen. In the Settings Menu, select the General option.
  2. Open the Keyboard menu.
    • Scroll down until you find the Keyboard menu in your General settings. Tap it to open the Keyboard menu. Select the Keyboards submenu.
  3. Remove the Emoji Keyboard.
    • In the Keyboards submenu, you will see a list of your installed keyboards. Tap the Edit button in the top-right corner. A red Remove button will appear next to keyboards that can be disabled. Tap the icon next to Emoji.
    • You can also slide the word "Emoji" to the left to reveal a red Delete button, which does the same action as the Remove icon would.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202332
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