How to get the emoji keyboard on your iPhone

Emoji are a fun and easy way to communicate with others on their own and can also enhance standard text-based messages. Whether you’re new to iPhone, just haven’t used emoji before, or the emoji keyboard was removed from your iPhone, follow along for how to get the emoji keyboard on your iPhone.

There are an amazing amount of choices when it come to expressing yourself with emoji. According to Emojipedia there are almost 2,000 emoji characters when you count skin-tone options and some emoji combinations.

Adding the emoji keyboard is a built-in free option with iOS and is quick an easy to set up.

How to get the emoji keyboard on your iPhone

1. Tap on Settings and then tap General
2. Swipe down and tap on Keyboard
3. Tap on Keyboards  and then select Add New Keyboard…
4. Swipe down to find and tap on Emoji
5. Look for the smiley face (or globe) icon on the bottom left side of your keyboard in almost any app and test it out 🤓👍🏼

Here is a walkthrough with images and a few more details:

Once you’ve added the emoji keyboard, try them out with pretty much any app that uses the keyboard. Tap on the smiley face in the bottom left corner of the keyboard to view and use emoji. Tap ABC to return to the keyboard.

If you have more 3 or more keyboards (including the emoji keyboard) you’ll see a globe instead of the smiley face/ABC toggles.

Tap on the globe to toggle between your keyboards. Alternately you can tap and hold on the globe to see a list of all your keyboards and jump to a specific one. For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide.