How to Use the iOS 8 Emoji Keyboard

The iOS 8 Emoji keyboard offers fast access to Emoji on the iPhone and iPad, right alongside the new iOS 8 keyboard and any third-party iOS 8 keyboards.

There is no need to buy a new iOS 8 Emoji keyboard, but you do need to turn this keyboard option on and if you use any additional keyboard you won’t be able to use the new Emoji shortcut in iOS 8.

Emoji are a more advanced form of emoticons that show more character than a simple smiling or frowning face. You can send Emoji in iMessages, texts, email, Facebook and more — even from iPhone to Android. There are many options from faces to animals, icons and more.

If you use Emoji on iOS 7, you should still have easy access to the iOS 8 Emoji keyboard but there are some changes that users need to be aware of.

After you turn the Emoji iOS 8 keyboard on there is a new small smiling icon on the keyboard that offers quick access to Emoji.

How to Use the iOS 8 Emoji Keyboard

We’ll show you how to use the iOS 8 emoji keyboard with the basic iOS 8 keyboard or with a third-party iOS 8 keyboard like SwiftKey installed. You can only use Emoji in certain text fields, so you won’t be able to enter them for a password or email address, but you can use this keyboard in most places.

To get started go to Settings, then scroll down until you see General. Tap on General and scroll down until you can tap on Keyboards.

Once you are in the iOS 8 Keyboard area you need to tap on Keyboards and then on Add New Keyboard. Scroll down to Emoji and select it.

That’s all there is to turning on the iOS 8 Emoji keyboard. This is the same on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. You’ll need to do this on every device you use.

To use the iOS 8 Emoji keyboard you need to tap the small smiley face next to the dictation icon on your keyboard. This only shows if you have Emoji and a main iOS keyboard enabled. If you install a third-party iOS 8 keyboard like SwiftKey you will see the globe.

Tap on the globe to switch between your keyboard options. You can remove the standard iOS 8 keyboard so that you don’t need to jump between three keyboard options anytime you want to use Emoji. To do this go back to the Keyboards screen, tap Edit and then the small minus sign to the left of the English keyboard option. You can only do this if you have at least one other main keyboard enabled.