How to Add Emoji, Memoji and Stickers to Your iPhone Messages

Back when iPhones were new, adding little icons to a message meant digging into a hidden setting to unlock the emoji keyboard. Those days are long gone. Today, emoji are built into every iPhone and iPad, and Messages also supports Memoji, stickers, Tapbacks and, on newer devices, custom emoji you create yourself.

Here is a quick tour of how to use them all, plus a few things parents may want to know.

Turn on the emoji keyboard

On most iPhones the emoji keyboard is already turned on. While typing, look for a smiley face or globe key at the bottom left of the keyboard. Tap it to switch to emoji.

If you do not see it:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Keyboard.
4. Tap Keyboards.
5. Tap Add New Keyboard and choose Emoji.

Now open Messages, tap in the text field, and tap the smiley or globe key.

Find the right emoji fast

There are thousands of emoji, so scrolling can take a while. A few shortcuts:

• Search. At the top of the emoji keyboard, tap the search field and type a word such as "dog," "birthday" or "thumbs."
• Frequently used. The first section of the emoji keyboard shows the ones you use most.
• Categories. Tap the small icons at the bottom of the emoji keyboard to jump to faces, animals, food, activities, travel, objects, symbols and flags.
• Skin tones. Touch and hold an emoji of a person or hand to choose a different skin tone.
• Predictive emoji. As you type normal words, the suggestions bar above the keyboard sometimes offers a matching emoji. Tap it to swap it in.

Memoji: your own cartoon face

Memoji are customizable cartoon characters that look like you (or like whatever you want). You can send them as stickers or animate them with your facial expressions on devices with Face ID.

To create one:

1. Open Messages and start or open a conversation.
2. Tap the plus (+) button next to the text field.
3. Tap Stickers, then look for the Memoji option, or go to the More menu to find Memoji.
4. Tap New Memoji and customize skin, hair, eyes, accessories and more.
5. Tap Done.

Your Memoji then appears as a set of sticker poses on the emoji keyboard, ready to drop into any conversation.

Stickers

Messages lets you place stickers anywhere in a conversation, including on top of other messages. You can also turn your own photos into stickers.

• From a photo: Open a photo in the Photos app, touch and hold the subject (a person, pet or object) until it lifts off the background, then tap Add Sticker.
• Using stickers: In Messages, tap the plus button and choose Stickers. Drag a sticker onto a message bubble, or tap it to send.

Tapbacks: quick reactions

Instead of typing a reply, you can react to a message.

1. Touch and hold (or double-tap) a message bubble.
2. Choose one of the standard reactions, such as a heart, thumbs up or laughing.
3. On recent versions of iOS, you can also tap the emoji button in that menu to react with any emoji.

Tapbacks are a nice way for kids to acknowledge a message without needing to reply to every one.

Genmoji: make your own emoji

On newer iPhones, iPads and Macs that support Apple Intelligence, you can create a custom emoji from a description, such as "cat wearing a party hat." These are called Genmoji.

1. Open the emoji keyboard.
2. Tap the search field or the Genmoji button and type a description.
3. Choose one of the options and send it.

Genmoji is not available on older devices, and Apple Intelligence features can be limited by Screen Time content settings on a child's account.

What parents should know about emoji

Emoji are mostly harmless fun, but kids and teens sometimes use them as a kind of code. Certain food, plant or object emoji have taken on slang meanings related to sex, drugs or other risky topics. The meanings change quickly and vary between friend groups, so any published "decoder list" goes out of date fast.

A few sensible approaches:

• Do not panic over a single emoji. Most of the time, a peach is just a peach.
• Look at context. Who sent it, in what conversation, and alongside what words?
• Ask, calmly. "What does this one mean with your friends?" often gets a straight answer, and occasionally an eye roll.
• Focus on behavior, not symbols. Changes in mood, secrecy or new contacts matter more than individual icons.

For more on keeping an eye on younger kids' messaging without reading every word, see our guide to restricting iMessage on a child's iPhone.

Communication Safety and images

If your child receives a sticker or image that contains nudity, Apple's Communication Safety feature can blur it before it appears and offer ways to get help. It is turned on by default for children under 18 in a Family Sharing group in many regions. On iOS 27, Apple expanded it to also blur gore and violence. Our article on preventing AirDrop sexting covers how it works with AirDrop too.

More typing time-savers

If you love emoji, you might also like Text Replacement, which can turn a short code into a full phrase, emoji included. Our guide to adding a keyboard shortcut on iPhone explains how. You could set ":bday" to expand into a birthday message with a cake and balloons, for example.

Quick recap

• Emoji keyboard: tap the smiley or globe key, or add it in Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards.
• Use the search field on the emoji keyboard to find icons fast.
• Create Memoji and photo stickers in Messages.
• Use Tapbacks for quick reactions.
• Genmoji requires a device that supports Apple Intelligence.
• Treat emoji "code" with curiosity, not panic, and keep Communication Safety on for kids.