As part of the iPhone OS 2.2 update, Apple enabled the Emoji icons for iPhone users in Japan specifically running on the Softbank network. Unfortunately, there is no way for users outside of Japan to activate the icons.
19 year old software developer Steven Troughton-Smith explains how to enable Emoji icons system-wide. If you aren’t familiar with editing code, or do not dabble in iPhone development, it’s not recommended that you try this.
Add the following boolean key as ‘true’: KeyboardEmojiEverywhere
Then merely go to the Keyboards section of the Settings app, hit Japanese, and turn on Emoji. Will work for any text field/view in the OS, including on websites, AND including the titles of items on SpringBoard (e.g. if you save a bookmark to the home screen).
As you can see from an Apple discussion thread, customers outside of Japan are pretty confused as to why Apple would leave the Emoji icons out of the update for everyone else. Emoji literally means “Picture Character” and in Japan, they are a staple of text messaging culture. Without the Emoji (emoticons), Apple’s iPhone would have not even been considered by a large group of potential customers.
34 Comments to “How to Enable Emoji Icons Outside of Japan”
haha, thx aviv. I was looking for this earlier today. weird
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No problem cake baker, have you got it working?
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I don’t know how to edit my file though
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not yet. going to try it later tonight. i was pretty bummed (although not surprised) that Apple left this out for everyone outside of the Softbank network.
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Could be useful for sure. I’d like a clipboard of system-wide statements as well
— Perhaps we could enter them ourselves. Just some everyday messages that could be quickly accessed for redundant conversations. This would eliminate the need to type the same thing over and over again.
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seems like a natural move by apple. Wish this was easier to do. I don’t think I’ll risk it for emoji.
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too bad it they dont work when you email or text them..
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I wish apple would give us a choice to install things like this. at least to let us express ourselves better when communicating via the iPhone.
why do we still need to ask for things like this?
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How to edit the plist file using windows? anyone can upload an edited one?
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@ mega: via SSH, or call your friend who has a mac and terminal
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Thanks jerry, via SSH? but how? I have no friend has a mac…
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are you jailbroken? is your iPhone jailbroken? do u have an iPhone 3G? or first gen iPhone?
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3G and jailbroken. Im using Winscp but don’t know how to edit this file.
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From Steven directly: “He’ll need to install ‘Erica’s Utilities’ in Cydia and use ‘plutil’ from the commandline to make the file an xml file and not a binary one. From there, he can bring it to the desktop and edit it in plain text, and send it back.”
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ok, i converted it to XML test and added KeyboardEmojiEverywhere
and sent it back to iphone then reboot, but it still have not cannot to enable this function. I need to convert it to binary before i copy to iphone??
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Oh, i made it! just wrong typing of the file name! amazing!!! thanks!
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@ mega: Doesn’t get much more direct than that
— couldn’t really ask for a better response. haha
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Thanks for the link back!
-S
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Of course Steven! Thank you for making light of this.
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AWESOME !!! thank you !!!!
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got them installed. SO FRIGGIN ADORABLE I want to puke on my iPhone. i’m still confused as to why apple would leave this out. what’s the harm?
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they show up as gibberish in some emails.
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for the other people out there who are having a hard time trying to find the plist file… instead of /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist … try this directory… /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist… cheers…
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just got them. well worth it. thank you everyone !!! thank you.
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If you enable them on your device and send a message with emoji characters to someone who has not enabled them will they still show up? Or does that person have to enable them too?
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One needs to get Emoji Icons enabled on one’s iPhone to view them.
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oh wait, you’re right Breno. if that’s what he was asking. YES! they DO need to have emoji enabled.
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iSpazio released a patch in Cydia to easily enable Emoji icons. Head for Cydia, be sure to have iSpazio repositories, and look for “Emoji”. Install it (only 1.3kB), and you’re done.
Then go to Settings > General > Keyboard ? Japanese > Emoji Icons > On.
Now you can use these icons pretty much in any app, jut hit the globe button on the keyboard, and play with your emoji!
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@socialsweetie: they shows up as gibberish sometimes, the other person doesn’t need to have emoji, but they won’t show up in certain messages.
@Breno: not everyone wants to jailbreak
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I thought jailbreaking was required for that! I didn’t notice that you could edit an iTunes backup file.
Anyway, I have an original iPhone in Brazil, so, it needs to be jailbroken, so I can unlock the baseband. Anyway, I use only a videorecording app, a tethering app and now that. I donn’t change my system that much!
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You lucky POS
I missed out on Netshare when it was available here in the US. I’m stuck without tethering 
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Yeah just install erika’s utilities and run plutil like this
plutil -v True -s KeyboardEmojiEverywhere /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist
Then enable emoji. done
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I took the plunge and installed Frostyplace for my 2G iPod touch (where no jailbreak is possible at this moment) and it worked.
I prefer this method instead of the vCard solution as it lets you choose individual emoji icons.
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DON’T DO THIS there is an app in the app store for only .99 . It’s called typing genious, when you download it it automaticly makes I an option under Japanese keyboard. (YOU DONT HAVE TO LIVE IN JAPAN I LIVE IN PA PENSYLVANIA)
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