An “emoticon” is the technical term used to describe the small graphic images that many people add to text messages, instant message programs and chat messages over the Internet. The most popular example of an emoticon is the classic yellow “smiley face” image, although there are many more. In previous versions of the iOS operating system, users could only insert emoticons into an SMS text message via actual keyboard characters. Instead of seeing the smiling yellow face as you would on a computer, users were stuck with some variation of the colon and parenthesis. Thanks to recent updates to the iOS operating system, iPhone users now have an entire army of true emoticons to call their own that can be used in any SMS text message send from the device.
Step 1
Open the “General” page within the “Settings” application on your iPhone. To do so, turn on your iPhone’s screen and open the appropriately labeled “Settings” icon. Once loaded, scroll through the screen until you find the listing labeled “General.” Tap on the listing to open the “General” page.
Step 2
Scroll down to the fifth section of options on screen. Among the listed options will be “Date & Time” and “Accessibility.” The “Keyboard” option will also be present in this section of the screen. Tap the “Keyboard” option once to continue.
Step 3
Scroll down to the section of the screen labeled “Keyboards,” located just above the section labeled “Shortcuts.” By default, the number next to the word “Keyboards” will read “1.” The number “1” indicates that there is currently a single virtual keyboard type in use on your iPhone. Tap the word “Keyboards” to continue.
Step 4
Tap the button labeled “Add New Keyboard.” Scroll through the list on screen until you find the keyboard labeled “Emoji.” The keyboards on screen are in alphabetical order, so look for the “Emoji” keyboard in between the “Dutch” and “Estonian” listings. Tap “Emoji” one time to enable this specific type of keyboard on your iPhone.
Step 5
Exit the “Settings” application. The next time you send an SMS text message on your iPhone, you will have all of the emoticons from the Emoji keyboard style available for you to include in the message as you see fit.
With so many emoticons available, textaholics will be in heaven when they use an iPhone. Wes recommends checking out the variety of iPhone 4S deals first though, so that you get a package that caters to your usage needs.
