Emoji

Daily Tip: How to setup Emoji keyboard shortcuts in iOS 5

By Andrew Wray, Monday, Jan 2, 2012 a 11:31 pm

Curious how to make it easier to insert Emoji icons into a text message, email or iMessage? It turns out there's a great workaround to switching between the normal keyboard and the Emoji keyboard, navigating to the emoticon you're looking for, then switching back to the normal keyboard to resume your message. In this tip, we'll show you how to use Emoji much more efficiently using keyboard shortcuts in iOS 5.

Bugs: AT&T iPhone can send emoji to Verizon iPhone, but not the other way around

By Leanna Lofte, Sunday, Feb 20, 2011 a 10:51 am

A rather interesting bug has been discovered: emoji sent over SMS between Verizon iPhone and AT&T iPhones is not recognized both ways - Verizon can receive from AT&T, but not vice versa.

When a Verizon iPhone texts emoji to an AT&T iPhone, all that is received is a bunch of random characters. However, a Verizon iPhone will recognize emoji sent from an AT&T iPhone with no problem. This inability to interpret emoji is only an issue with the messages app, however. An AT&T iPhone can recognize emoji elsewhere, like email and twitter, just fine - even if the emoji was sent from a Verizon iPhone.

Anyone else run into this problem?

iOS 4 features: Keyboards and Emoji

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Jul 14, 2010 a 7:24 am

One of the huge advantages of iOS 4's virtual keyboard is that, for people who write in multiple languages, changing from English to Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, or other non-Roman options involves a simple Settings change. This is helpful for language students and business travelers alike. It can also be fun, especially when it comes to things like Japanese Emoji (think emoticons gone wild).

Kyle sent this our way:

When turning on the japanese romaji keyboard, if you return to the keyboards menu you will be given a new option "edit user dictionary" where you can add a new word/Yama (if I remember that right) to the auto-correct dictionary and I assume the spell-check as well.

After tinkering for a bit, I saw the Chinese Pinyin keyboards work as well for the dictionary. Now, while meandering through the Japanese keyboard, I saw this "^_^" key under the '123' tab. Tap it and you'll be given a gigantic list of 'emoticons' if you will and some of which include symbols like those of a character map.

I HIGHLY recommend you see these as some are a bit funny looking and it really makes you think why Apple would put these on here, and why so many?

We're guessing it's because iPhone is popular in Japan, Emoji are popular in Japan, and Apple's using the latter to increase the former. If any Japanese readers have a better theory, let us know!

More pics after the break, and more on iOS 4 in our walkthrough...

Apple and Google Propose Standardized Encoding for... Emoji!

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Jun 29, 2009 a 6:39 am

Love them or hate them, miracle or menace, Emoji are standard message elements in Japan and have caught some favor among internet iPhone users (and TiPb Forum staff...)

The problem, however, is that there's currently no standard way to encode the little mega-smileys across different carriers and platforms, leading to a lot of "translation" work in between. The solution?

Apple Taking Down Emoji-Enabling Apps (or Making them Remove the Feature)

By Dieter Bohn, Friday, Feb 27, 2009 a 12:00 pm

Lots (and lots) of you have become smitten with Emoji, the cute, extra smiley-faces that come to us from Japan and work quite well on the iPhone. That is to say, they work quite well if you've hacked them on or downloaded one of the several apps that turns them on on-the-sly.

Still on iPhone 2.2 and Want Emoji? FrostyPlace Free Right Now!

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Jan 29, 2009 a 10:42 pm

Act fast, because this ain't gonna last, but if you're still on iPhone OS 2.2 and want to activate Emoji as detailed by iJustine (see previous post for details), act fast and scoop up FrostyPlace now. It's FREE for today only (and who knows what time zone today ends for them!)

(Via Daynah on Twitter)

Emoji Emoticons Enabled for All by frostyplace App!

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Jan 23, 2009 a 4:13 pm

The inimitable iJustine has tastily blog snacked about an App Store goodie named frostyplace (iTunes / $0.99), a Japanese RSS reader that by-the-way works around the iPhone's limitation of only allowing Emoji (the massive emoticon collection used in Japan that adds to smiley face things like panda bear, train station, and mountain) on it's official Japanese carrier.

TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! Podcast #3

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Nov 27, 2008 a 4:57 pm

iPhone OS 2.2 features and fails, including Google Maps and Podcast downloads, BlackBerry Storm watch, the Case-Mast Naked Case, and live chat question and answer. Listen in!

Want Japanese Emoticons? Hack Enables Them On Any iPhone 2.2

By Jeremy, Monday, Nov 24, 2008 a 1:56 pm

Ok, I will admit I have never heard of Emoji (“Picture Characters”) until it was announced that iPhone firmware 2.2 would support them. As it turns out, however, the only iPhones that were blessed with this feature were on Japan's SoftBank network. Until now that is...

Important Note: If you are not familiar with editing code we here at TiPb do not recommended that you try this.

iPhone 2.2: Google Street View, Auto-Correct Off, and Emoji

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Oct 6, 2008 a 8:23 am

Developers are continuing to dig away at iPhone Firmware 2.2 Beta 1, and Macrumors brings word of a few more juicy finds:

First up is Google Street View for Maps, which Android wowed the crowds with at its recent unveiling. Just like location services, however, it looks like Apple and Google will be rolling it in for iPhone users soon enough.

Next is a Settings control to enable or disable the auto-correction feature of the keyboard. Many of our own readers have been asking for this, likely to get their SMS <3, 133t, can has lolcatz, or, you know... other languages on.

Lastly, Japanese Emoji icons seem to have finally found their place in the iPhone-verse.

Still no word, however, on the delayed Push Notification Server support or many of the other most griped about, still curiously omitted features like... oh, we don't know... cut and goram paste?!

So, are these enough new features to wet your 2.2. appetite? Want more? And how important is it to you that Apple balance the amount of new features with the risk of instability a la 2.0?

(Macrumors screenshots after the jump...)