Trick to Enable Japanese Emoji Icons on your iPhone; No Jailbreaking Required

BY Jason

Published 18 Dec 2008

iPhone Firmware 2.2 - Emoji icons

iPhone firmware 2.2 gave iPhone users the ability to create and view messages with Emoji icons. But it was available only to iPhone users on Japan’s SoftBank network.

There are couple of ways to enable it: use the hack that an iPhone developer had figured out or install Emoji app via Cydia. But both these solutions needed a jailbroken iPhone.

Folks at Winandmac have figured out another trick to achieve this without the need to hack your iPhone.

The trick makes use of a technique where you need to import 27 address book contacts to your iPhone, and recall it using the Japanese keyboard just like the hack which teaches your iPhone to swear.

To enable emoji icons on your iPhone, follow these instructions:

Step 1. Download the vcard.vcf here.

Step 2. Import it to your address book program. If you are using
Windows, you may want to do it on iPhone directly. Send the vcard.vcf
file to yourself. Open in on iPhone’s Email.app, click the vcf file and
import all the contacts.

Step 3. Go into “Settings” > “General” > “Keyboard” > “Japanese Keyboard”. Enable the QWERTY keyboard.

Step 4. In notes or any other program you want. Type “emojia”, “emojii” or “emojiu” to select those :) icons.

I still prefer the solution of installing Emoji app via Cydia which needs a jailbroken iPhone as I don’t like the idea of clutterring my address book with unnecessary contacts.

However, if you are not in Japan and want to use emoji icons on your iPhone but vary about hacking your iPhone then this is the only option available.

As always, let us know how it goes in the comments below.

[via Winandmac]




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