It’s amazing how much people can do on their iPhones. Not only has communication gotten faster and smoother, it has also become more effective in terms of sending the right message across.

Where primitive texting meant two liners that limited your character count, you can now send lengthy messages without having to worry how you’re going to fit everything into a few characters. And where there was a time when you had to be imaginative in putting characters together just to add smileys to your text, you now have the option to click different emoji to say exactly what you need to say.

Experts who sell iPhones admit that a lot of people who buy gadgets from them use emoji in almost every message they send. Raring to do the same thing yourself? Here’s a complete guide to using emoji on your iPhone.

Adding an Emoji to Your Message

Regardless of what app you’re using to send a message, you can squeeze a few emoji in to send clearer and more expressive thoughts.

How do you do it?

1. Tap the text field.
2. You’ll notice that one of the keys on your keyboard shows a smiley face on it. It’s right between the number key and the space bar. Tap on it and your keyboard will turn into a collection of emoji you can choose from.
3. Choose the right emoji. You can swipe left or right at the gray icons at the bottom if you’re looking for a specific theme. If you want to add an emoji that you have recently used, just tap the watch icon.
4. You can also change the skin tone of the emoji. Simply press and hold, and a few additional options will appear.

If you have upgraded to iOS 10, you can also send bigger emoji for better effect.

Replacing Words with Emoji

Yes, your iPhone’s smart like that. You can actually replace some of the words in your message with the corresponding emoji. The words “pizza” or “basketball” for example, can be replaced with small pictures of a slice of pizza or a basketball. How do you do it?

1. Type in your message.
2. One your message is complete, tap the smiley (emoji) key.
3. Wait for some of the words on your message to turn orange.
4. Tap on the orange words to replace them with emoji.

One you’re done, you’ll see that your message now has different emoji to represent the words you initially used.

You would also notice that sometimes, an emoji would show up on the word suggestion field. This happens when your iPhone sees words you are typing that could immediately be replaced by an emoji. Simply tap on the suggested emoji to use it right away.

Don’t notice the emoji keyboard on your phone? You might have turned it off accidentally! Simply go to setting, and find “keyboard” under “general”. You can then add the emoji keyboard by tapping on “Add a new keyboard”, then choosing “emoji”.