How to type emoji on iPhone
iOS 18 / iOS 26 emoji keyboard
iPhone has had a dedicated emoji keyboard since iOS 5 (2011). On iOS 18+ (and iOS 26 in 2026) you can also generate custom Genmoji with Apple Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro and later.
Step-by-step
- 1
Add the emoji keyboard
Open Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard… → tap "Emoji". The globe / smiley icon will appear next to the spacebar.
- 2
Open the emoji picker
🌐 / 😊In any text field, tap the globe icon (or smiley icon, depending on iOS version) to switch to the emoji keyboard. Tap the same icon again to switch back.
- 3
Use predictive emoji
Type a word like "happy" or "pizza" — matching emoji appear above the keyboard. Tap to insert. Works in any text field across iOS.
- 4
Replace words with emoji
After typing a sentence, tap the smiley icon. Any word that has a matching emoji turns orange — tap it to swap in the emoji.
- 5
Dictate emoji by voice
Tap the microphone icon in any keyboard and say "heart emoji", "fire emoji", "thumbs up emoji" — Siri inserts the matching character.
- 6
Generate Genmoji (iOS 18+)
On iPhone 15 Pro and newer with Apple Intelligence enabled, open the emoji keyboard → tap the Genmoji button → describe what you want ("a cat astronaut"). Apple generates a custom emoji you can reuse.
- 7
Skin tones & gender
Long-press any people emoji to reveal 5 skin tones. Some emoji also have gender variants — long-press to swap.
Frequently asked
You may have removed the Emoji keyboard. Go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → Emoji.
They are on an older OS that does not include that emoji yet. Newer Unicode emoji (15.1, 16.0) need iOS 17.4+ / Android 14+ to render.