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How to Add the Emoji Keyboard to the iPhone

Troy Frommer —  10/04/2012

The use of emoticons is on the rise as more users turn to texting and iMessaging to stay in touch. Emoticons started out as a simple :) to convey emotion, and evolved into more detailed pictures known as emoji.

iPhone users benefit the most from emoji as they have a keyboard that is entirely dedicated to it. With a few easy steps this keyboard can be enabled so that texting conversations between iPhones, iPads and iPods are a little more interesting.

Using the Emoji keyboard is a fun way to liven up a conversation or get a laugh out of the a friend.

How to Enable the Emoji Keyboard

Tap Settings.

Settings

Tap General.

General

Scroll down and select Tap Keyboard.

Keyboard

Tap Keyboards.

Keyboards

Then Tap Add New Keyboard.

New Keyboard

Scroll Down and Select Emoji.

Emoji

Once complete the keyboard screen should appear in the list of keyboards.

All KeyboardsIn addition to the keyboard that the user uses as their default language the emoji keyboard is also added to this list. It is important to note that this same process can be used to add a keyboard of another language to the iPhone. This may be convenient while traveling, or also if a user is fluent in several languages.

How to Use the iPhone Emoji Keyboard

Once the keyboard has been added the only step left is to switch from English to Emoji while in a conversation.

When the Messages application is open the keyboard will display like so.

Default layout

Notice how the space bar has decreased in size to make room for the International button on the bottom row. To switch to the Emoji keyboard Tap the International button that is highlighted above. 

Emoji love

This switches to the Emoji keyboard. This keyboard offers six categories of Emoji, and multiple screens in each category. Tap on an icon in the bottom row to change categories and swipe in the three rows of icons to see more Emoji.

Users can combine emoji to create small characters as shown below.

Emoji Advanced

An example of advanced Emoji use.

To switch back to the standard keyboard, tap on the international symbol again.

Emoji is a fun way to spice up conversation but it does have some limits. When sent between iPods, iPads and iPhones the emoji will always be displayed. But if an iPhone user sends these emoji to android, regular phones, or even some websites, like Facebook, they may not display at all.

Also check out How to connect Facebook with iOS 6 and How to get YouTube back in iOS 6.

 

Troy Frommer

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Troy enjoys both using and teaching others about technology. He uses a 13" MacBook Pro, iPad "3", and iPhone 5. Follow him on Twitter at @troytechguru or send him an email at troy@notebooks.com

24 responses to How to Add the Emoji Keyboard to the iPhone

  1. Vellimalai 01/02/2013 at 6:22 am

    Very thanks for help step

    Reply
  2. oscar 01/02/2013 at 9:50 am

    thannks man

    Reply
  3. N 01/09/2013 at 11:31 am

    thanks a lot!

    Reply
  4. Jordan 01/10/2013 at 2:40 pm

    Thanks so much it really helped me to do funny faces at my mates

    Reply
  5. ann 01/28/2013 at 10:27 pm

    Thanks!

    Reply
  6. Sissi 02/06/2013 at 1:10 pm

    Very helpfull, thanks

    Reply
  7. Carito 02/14/2013 at 11:25 am

    Thank you!! Couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. Haha thought I had to get an app or something. Thanks again?

    Reply
  8. Edprez 02/18/2013 at 4:56 pm

    Thank you

    Reply
  9. Bana 02/20/2013 at 7:03 am

    Hey man yu the shit thanks

    Reply
  10. henry 02/25/2013 at 8:32 am

    awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  11. Sharon Campbell 02/25/2013 at 1:39 pm

    Hey you rock! So much fun Sharon. I am a Grandma techie! A little challenging at times!

    Reply
  12. Brenda Harper 02/27/2013 at 7:39 pm

    How can I make the emoji pictures bigger?

    Reply
  13. Hazel 02/28/2013 at 12:09 pm

    My iphn doesn’t have that option… is there another way?

    Reply
  14. Natalie 03/01/2013 at 7:58 pm

    My daughter has an IPhone 4 and I have an LG Optimus. She loaded it, but when she sends me a message with an emoticon, it doesn’t show up. Is this function only compatible with IPhones?

    Reply
  15. jyotsna 03/04/2013 at 8:02 am

    Cant find Emoji on the page which opens once u tap on new keyboard

    Reply
  16. Amna 03/05/2013 at 12:03 am

    Wow that helped a lot !! Really didn’t know that… Thanks a dozen :)

    Reply
  17. Jyotsna 03/05/2013 at 2:28 am

    hey have no emoji in the new keyboard section.Does it have to be downloaded first? HOW?

    Reply
  18. Sabrina 03/05/2013 at 9:15 am

    Why works only some times?Appears on the screen but not on the sent message.

    Reply
  19. Nicolas Paul Mamula 03/05/2013 at 5:36 pm

    🙏 !!!

    Reply
  20. Briana 03/05/2013 at 6:10 pm

    hella Helpful thanks guy

    Reply
  21. Shahira 03/14/2013 at 8:13 am

    Thanks so much, that was SO easy to follow!

    Reply
  22. Jaima aldrich 03/18/2013 at 12:11 pm

    😗Thank you!! How do you get more than what’s standard?

    Reply
  23. Patricia Oliver 04/09/2013 at 3:39 pm

    Thank you for all your help

    Reply
  24. Subodh 05/09/2013 at 9:49 pm

    Thanks buddy was very helpful😄

    Reply