Mobile Phones iPhone & iOS How to Add Emoji to Your iPhone Keyboard It's easy to get emoji on your iPhone by Sam Costello Writer Sam Costello has been writing about tech since 2000. His writing has appeared in publications such as CNN.com, PC World, InfoWord, and many others. our editorial process Facebook Twitter Sam Costello Updated on December 08, 2020 reviewed by Christine Baker Lifewire Tech Review Board Member Christine Baker is a marketing consultant with experience working for a variety of clients. Her expertise includes social media, web development, and graphic design. our review board Article reviewed on Mar 08, 2020 Christine Baker iPhone & iOS Switching from Android Tweet Share Email What to Know To enable emoji, open the Settings app and go to General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard. Tap Emoji to enable the keyboard.To use emoji, tap the face or globe icon beneath the keyboard when typing a message. Tap any emoji icon to add it to the text.To remove the emoji keyboard, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Edit. Select the red minus button next to Emoji > Delete. The iPhone includes hundreds of emoji, all accessible and completely free—provided you enabled the built-in emoji keyboard. In this guide, we show you how to enable, use, and remove emoji on all iPhone, iPad, and iPhone touch devices with iOS 7 or later. The Best iPhone Deals of 2021 How to Enable Emoji on iPhone To add emoji to your iPhone, install a new keyboard, which is as easy as selecting the emoji keyboard from the phone's settings. Open the Settings app. Go to General > Keyboard. Select Keyboards > Add New Keyboard. Swipe through the list until you find Emoji, and then tap it to enable it. On the Keyboards screen, you'll see the language keyboard you chose at the initial setup of your iPhone, as well as the emoji keyboard. This means that emoji are enabled and ready to use. How to Use Emoji on iPhone With emoji added to your iPhone, you can now type these symbols in practically any app. It won't work in all apps because some use a custom keyboard, but others like Messages, Notes, and Mail will work. How to Type Emojis With the keyboard open, select the face or globe icon beneath the keyboard (on iPhone X) or to the left of the space bar to access the emoji menu. To view all the emoji, scroll to the right or select an icon at the bottom to jump to that category of emoji (categories were introduced in iOS 8.3). Inserting an emoji in a message is as simple as selecting where you want it to go and then tapping the emoji from the tray. To hide the emoji keyboard and return to the normal layout, tap the globe or alphabet key. How to Use Multicultural Emoji For years, the standard set of emoji available on the iPhone featured only white traits, like white faces and white hands. Apple worked with the Unicode Consortium, the group that controls emoji, to change the standard set to reflect a more diverse selection. However, you have to perform a keyboard trick to see the multicultural options. Here's how: These steps are relevant for devices with iOS 8.3 or newer. Open the emoji keyboard from an app that supports it. Find an emoji that's a single human face or hand, and tap and hold it. With the new menu visible, slide your finger up into the panel to land on the emoji you want to use, and then lift your finger to insert the hidden emoji. How to Get iPhone Emojis for Your Android How to Remove the Emoji Keyboard If you decide you don't want to use emoji anymore and want to hide the keyboard, return to the keyboard settings to make the change. These instructions show how to hide the emoji keyboard, not delete it, so you can always enable it again later. Open the Settings app and go to General > Keyboard > Keyboards. Tap Edit at the top and then select the red minus button next to Emoji. Select Delete. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit