How to use the hidden emoticons on your iPhone \(^o^)/

Hidden within iOS’ Japanese keyboard are a slew of little-known ASCII faces that have been prebuilt by Apple. These fun and quirky faces are great for sending a friendly face to a friend or spouse via iMessage or another form of text-based communication to express how you’re feeling at a moment in time, and you don’t have to speak Japanese to use them.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how you can access them so you can start spicing up your conversations.

Use funny emoticons on iPhone

How to enable Japanese keyboard on iPhone

Since the ASCII faces are only available in the Japanese iOS keyboard, you’ll have to enable this keyboard from your iPhone settings. It’s not difficult to do, as evident from these steps:

1) Open the Settings app and tap General.

2) Tap Keyboard > Keyboards.

3) Now, tap Add New Keyboard.

4) Scroll down and from the list of languages, select Japanese > Kana.

5) Finally, tap Done.

Add Japanese Kana keyboard to iPhone

You have successfully added the Japanese keyboard to your iPhone, which is required to access the ASCII faces. Now, it’s time to try it out!

How to access and use ASCII faces on iPhone keyboard

1) After adding the Japanese keyboard, open an app that supports typing, like Messages, WhatsApp, etc.

2) On your current keyboard, press and hold the globe key to see all your available keyboards. From here, tap the Japanese keyboard.

3) Tap the ^_^ key next to the emoji key.

Switch to Japanese keyboard on iPhone

4) You’ll see the ASCII faces on the top of the keyboard. Swipe left or right to browse them. To comfortably view all these hidden emoji faces, tap the arrow button. Please scroll down to see them all.

5) To use a face you like, simply tap it and hit the send button.

Select ASCII faces on iPhone

ASCII faces on iPhone and iPad

Apple offering these ASCII faces in the stock iOS keyboard is handy and saves a bunch of time for those who create ASCII faces regularly and have always wanted a faster way to access these special characters. With the ASCII faces already prebuilt for you, they’re just one tap away instead of several.

ASCII faces will work in any iOS app that supports keyboard switching. This includes popular services like iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and several other chatting apps where sending faces are common.

These kinds of facial expressions won’t be for everyone, but if you wish to do things differently or are now bored of the regular emojis, ASCII faces are a fantastic way to spice up your conversations. And if your friend asks how you typed these cute faces in the chat, make sure to send them this tutorial.

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