Emoji are awesome. But, it can be difficult to figure out how to use them on all different types of devices.
iOS
iOS is probably the easiest. First, you need to have the emoji keyboard enabled. Do so like this:
- (Tap) Settings
- (Tap) General
- (Scroll > Tap) Keyboards
- (Tap) Keyboards (#)
- If emoji is listed, you’re golden
- (Tap) Add New Keyboard
- (Scroll > Tap) Emoji
Using Emoji
Anywhere you see a keyboard, whether it be messages, Facebook, twitter or instagram, you will either see a smiley face (if emoji is your only alternative keyboard) or a globe (if you have numerous keyboards).
Click this to pull up the emoji picker — you might have to circle through other keyboards if you have them.
You’ll see icons along the bottom, these denote categories of emoji:
- Clock — Frequently used.
- Face — Smileys & People
- Bear — Animals & Nature
- Burger/Shake — Food & Drink
- Soccer Ball — Activity
- Car/Buildings — Travel & Places
- Lightbulb — Objects
- Symbols
- Flags
Skin Tones
Some emoji have variable skin tones — If you long press on an emoji, it’ll give you the option to alter your default skin tone for it. You can go back and change that at any time.
Mac OS X
Many people have difficulty using emoji on the desktop. That’s silly. Apple makes it almost easier than iOS.
command + control + space bar
You can also pull down the edit menu in most apps (in a text field) and choose “Emoji & Symbols” — this will bring up the mac emoji picker.
The mac Emoji Picker is very similar to iOS. It adds one handy tool though — search. You can search for the emoji you’re looking for.
You can also hover over each emoji and learn it’s name. Some might surprise you. But it’s especially useful if you’re an avid emoji user.
You’ll also notice a little button next to search which allows you to expand the emoji picker for more details and more options. When you’re not in a text entry zone, you can always do cmd+control+space and get yourself an emoji picker.
Android
Depending on your version, manufacturer, model and carrier — your android device may or may not include an emoji keyboard.
Many Android keyboards though now include a simple smiley button like iOS to offer access to stock (ugly Google) emoji. This is a start, but likely not preferred.
One consistently popular option is the SwitftKey Keyboard for Android. Not only is it a great keyboard, but its emoji implementation is stellar.
Since there are SO many variables, and so many possibilities I’ve decided to give you a couple great resources to find more/better instructions for awesome emoji usage:
WikiHow — 4 ways to get emoji on Android
Mashable — How to enable emoji on Android
Windows
Windows has natively supported viewing emojis since Windows 7. In Windows 8.1 and above, you can access an onscreen keyboard to enter them easily. In your taskbar next to the clock you’ll notice a keyboard icon — press it to pull up the onscreen keyboard (usually useful for touch screen devices) and then choose the smiley to the left of the space bar.
Chrome
There are a TON of emoji keyboards for chrome. They’re certainly more necessary on windows or even Chrome OS compared to the mac — they are cross platform. They can provide different categorization, better search and varied appearances.
If you search the chrome web store, you’ll find a bunch. Some of the best include:
Emoji CheatSheet by Johann Hofmann
Copy/Paste
Another useful way to go about adding emoji is to simply keep a file with all of them listed. You can enlarge them, categorize them etc… There are websites that do this too. Like Get Emoji.
For the most complete source of Emoji knowledge, head over to unicode.org.
More Emoji Fun
I’ve collected a few interesting tools for emoji entry over at Product Hunt. Some are keyboards, some are tools for devs and some make emoji search a whole lot easier. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading!
If you’ve made it this far — why not share?
Also, be sure to check out Emoji Life — emojilytics for Twitter.
