Here Are the Best New Features of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13
- The takeaway: It’s World Emoji Day! To help you celebrate, this post will cover all the exciting new emoji updates coming with Apple’s new operating system – iOS 12 – including Memoji and four new Animojis.
World Emoji Day is here. We’d say mark your calendars but they already are in a way, it’s the date that’s most likely on your phone’s calendar emoji. July 17th was designated as World Emoji Day because that’s the date that many platforms display on their calendar emoji. Apple uses July 17th because iCal for Mac was first announced on that date in 2002. But they’re not the only one – Google, Mozilla and EmojiOne have all used that date at various times too.
From right to left: Apple, Google Android 7.1, Mozilla and EmojiOne.
Source: Emojipedia
Even if you’re not that excited about the holiday, if you love Apple products, you are probably excited about what’s coming up later this year. In September, Apple is releasing a new operating system equipped with some exciting emoji-related updates.
New emoji features coming to iOS 12
Memoji
Image source: Apple
If you have an iPhone X, you’ll be able to start creating Memojis with iOS 12. This new feature, allows you to create as many emojis of yourself to match your personality and mood. You can then share your Memojis with your friends using Messages and FaceTime.
Animoji
Image source: Apple
Apple launched Animojis on iPhone X last year to allow you to use your facial features and creative chops to send animated emojis to anyone on your contact list. When iOS 12 drops in September, it will come with four more Animojis for iPhone X users – koala, tiger, ghost and T. rex. This quartet of new Animojis will expand the current roster which includes characters like a fox, panda bear and the chocolate ice cream emoji (or whatever you choose to call that one).
How to use emojis on your iPhone
But if you don’t have an iPhone X or you don’t want to wait for the new operating system, there is still plenty of emoji functionalities you can enjoy on your iPhone (you could also download the iOS 12 beta to get a head-start playing with the new Animoji and Memoji features).
Grasshopper emojis users
If you’re new to using emojis, start by opening an iPhone app that uses the standard keyboardlike Messages or Mail. Then, open the text field and tap the Smiley face icon. This will pull up the first page of emojis. You can scroll through the pages using the gray icons at the bottom to switch between emoji themes or swipe left to find more options.
When you find the one you want to send, just tap the emoji and hit the send button when you’re done composing your message. You can also change the skin tone of certain emojis by tapping and holding down on the image.
Next level emoji users
Once you get the hang of using emojis, there are tons of shortcuts and bonus features to take your emoji game to the next level. For example, to speed up the process of finding the emoji you want, you can click on the clock icon for a shortcut to your recently used emojis.
And, if you’re really into the whole brevity thing, you can start using emojis to replace words in your messages. After you’re done typing out a message, tap the Smiley face icon on your keyboard and wait for the words to turn orange. To replace one of the orange words with an emoji, tap the word and select from the options that pop up. You can replace as many orange words as you want but if you decide you went a little too overboard, you can just tap the emoji to re-insert the original word.
Mr. Miyagi-level emoji users
If you want to become a true master of sending emojis, you can use iPhone’s Predictive text feature to send entire messages with just a tap. With Predictive text, your iPhone will automatically guess words, phrases and emojis as you type based on your past conversations and writing style. To enter emojis, just start typing and look for suggested emojis to add in the Predictive text bar in between the keyboard and the message window.
Hopefully, these tips will help you celebrate World Emoji Day. If you want to get in on the fun, make sure to follow the action using the social media links below using the hashtag #WorldEmojiDay.
Want to start using the new iPhone emojis today? Shop for a new iPhone X at Simply Mac’s online store or at one of our locations.
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