Emoticons in iOS

One of the lesser touted additions to iOS 5 was the ability insert emoticons (called emoji) on the iphone in imessage and texting to other iOS devices. Technically this was available before, but you had to install sketchy apps from the app store and do some light messing around with the OS. Now the process is super simple and apple approved.

Basically you now get a second keyboard that lets you insert smiley faces, or other symbols in your texts.

In order to enable this feature there are a few really simple steps. Go to your Settings App. Pick “General”. Scroll down and choose “Keyboard”. Hit “International Keyboards”. Now, click “Add New Keyboard.” Scroll down and pick “Emoji”. That’s it!

Now to use it, go to your iMessage app. There is a globe in the bottom right. Tap that and you get the emoji icons. Tap again and you go back to your normal keyboard.