The headline feature of iOS 9.1 was without a doubt the 150 new emoji characters available to emoji keyboard users. These new characters are all the rage, and rightfully so, as they bring a whole new range of emotions to the table.
But what about those of us stuck on iOS 9.0, iOS 9.0.1, or iOS 9.0.2? As you all know, Apple killed the Pangu jailbreak with iOS 9.1, so upgrading to iOS 9.1 isn’t an option for those of us wanting to maintain our jailbreak.
Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you can enable the emoji keyboard and send new emojis to devices capable of displaying them. The bad news is that the tweak is still a work in progress, and as such, the new emoji don’t display properly in all apps.
Some apps will work fine, such as Mail, but other apps, like Messages, won’t properly display the new emoji. Developer PoomSmart says that he is working on a fix for the issue, so eventually, we may have a 100% fully working iOS 9 emoji package for iOS 9.1.
In the meantime, however, this tutorial is the next best thing. Watch our video to see how it works.
How to install new iOS 9.1 emoji on iOS 9, iOS 9.0.2, and iOS 9.0.2
Note: you must be jailbroken running iOS 9 to use this tutorial.
Add PoomSmart’s repo to your Cydia Sources
Step 1: Open Cydia
Step 2: Tap Sources
Step 3: Tap Edit
Step 4: Tap Add
Step 5: Paste the following source: http://poomsmart.github.io/repo/
Step 6: Tap Add Source
Once the source is added, install the Emoji83 package (not the BETA).
Install the emoji file
Step 1: Open Cydia
Step 2: Tap Search
Step 3: Type Emoji iOS and tap on the Emoji iOS 9 Backup (D) search result
Step 4: Tap Install
Step 5: Tap Confirm and be patient, because the emoji font file is fairly large
Step 6: Once the download and installation is completed, tap Return to Cydia
Step 7: Press the Home button to go to the Home screen and open BytaFont 2
Step 8: Tap Emoji
Step 9: Tap Emoji_iOS 9.1
Step 10: Tap Yes to respring
Once you respring, open the emoji keyboard, and you should see all of the new iOS 9.1 emojis. As mentioned, while you can see the emojis and type them, they don’t always properly display on screen. Sometimes you will see a little [?] box instead.
The good news is that others who are running iOS 9.1 will be able to see your new emojis just fine, and you’ll be able to read other’s emoji’s on some places like in the Mail app, for example.
The big takeaway here is that this is still very much a work in progress. PoomSmart says that he is working on cleaning up the issues with the emoji not displaying correctly in some apps.
As of now, though, this is as good as it gets for us users who are running firmware < iOS 9.1.
What do you think?