I enjoy emoticons. And iOS6 has added quite a few new ones for our emoting-pleasure.
Emoticons are not a new feature of iOS6, but in iOS6 many more have been added.
So for those people who are enjoying their first iPhone, or who have just upgraded from an earlier model, this post will either alert you that you now have a host of newly added emoticons, or show you how to get to them in the first place.
I previously wrote about accessing your emoticons, here. But for the sake of the continuity of this post, I’ll refresh those directions today.
Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards > Add a New Keyboard > Emoji
And now, when you go back to your keyboard to type a note, an email, or a text message, you will see a globe in the lower left corner.
Tap the globe and the emoticons will appear for you to browse through. Tap any emoticon and it will appear in your message.
You’ll notice 5 symbols to choose from across the bottom, and each of these will take you deeper into pages of symbols, faces, fruit, people, animals and more.
Here are some sample clips of the emoticon choices. It looks like there is MORE of everything. More faces, more animals, more fruit, more flowers and more symbols. Old is mixed in with the new. Cats are new, “See No Evil * Hear No Evil * Speak No Evil” Monkeys are new, phases of the moon are new, along with a host of other bits of this and that.
When you have selected your emoticon, just tap the globe once again, and you will be returned to the standard keyboard.
Note: Apple tells us that “When sending emoji to non-iOS devices (other mobile phones, computers, or applications), the emoji may not appear as expected.” I experimented by sending some emoticons in an email to a friend who read the email on a non-iOS computer and she did not see any emoticons. So be aware that “may not appear as expected” also means “may not appear at all”.
Alastair
/ September 24, 2012Thanks very much for that info. I missed the emotes so glad to have them back
sharechair
/ September 24, 2012I enjoy them. They are fun to add a little zip, a little boost, a little love to a text message.
Alastair
/ September 24, 2012Yes they do. Do you know if they turn it into a MMS, or if it is still an SMS?
sharechair
/ September 24, 2012This is “deeper” stuff than I am comfortably familiar with. But here is a link to a recent Apple update about messaging that perhaps might answer your question: iOS About Messages
Alastair
/ September 24, 2012Thank you
george-b
/ September 24, 2012Nice, I love this!
sharechair
/ September 24, 2012So easy to use!
george-b
/ September 24, 2012Yes!
The Presents of Presence
/ September 24, 2012Adorable kitty & monkey pics! Thanks for sharing!
sharechair
/ September 24, 2012Alice
/ September 24, 2012sharechair
/ September 24, 2012a laughing happy face!! so cool!
coastalcrone
/ September 24, 2012I have seen them sent to me and are fun but I have a simple phone. But thanks for the information – now I know!
sharechair
/ September 24, 2012They are a fun way to express yourself.
kdkh
/ September 25, 2012šIt works!
sharechair
/ September 25, 2012cindy knoke
/ November 3, 2012Very helpful! Thanks.
sharechair
/ November 3, 2012I’m so glad it was helpful for you!
Anonymous
/ November 25, 2012I’ve got ipad 3 and iPhone 4 but the emoticons doesn’t show up when I used it to my facebook status or comments. But if I used it to Facebook chat it was alright. Any idea?
sharechair
/ November 25, 2012I don’t know for sure …. BUT …. my understanding is that the emoticons work only between Apple devices, so I’m guessing that once you get out into the Facebook world they won’t work. The key point being “between Apple devices”. So if you chat with someone also using an Apple-something, they will see you emoticons.
tchistorygal
/ December 26, 2012Did it! Yeah!!
Derek
/ January 7, 2013Love the display of emoticons, great blog
Vanessa
/ March 18, 2013I have iPhone 5 & ipad 3. After inserting the emoticon in Facebook comment, going out then coming back into Facebook the emoticon is not showing. Why is this?
sharechair
/ March 18, 2013I never joined Facebook, so I cannot give you a ‘for sure’ answer, but my guess is that it probably has something to do with the fact that these emoticons are only to be used/seen among iOS devices. If you insert the emoticon in an email for example and the receiver is on an iPad, he will see it, but if he looks via a Blackberry, he will not.