Emoji on your iPhone :-)

Emoji, Japanese for "picture" + "letter," is a set of picture characters used in Japan much in the same way as emoticons here in the US. The Emoji pictographs, however, offer a wider variety of images than emoticons which are typically limited to just expressing an emotion or facial expression such as winking.

Emoji pictographs include the usual suspects from the emoticon gang as well as many others. Such gems as the top hat, a diamond ring for "txting" your wedding proposal, and also some holiday goodies like Santa, and a ghost are all part of the fun! For the majority of cell phones, Emoji is a Japanese-focused feature that is not implemented much in the US. Some, however, have already enabled the use of Emoji through a process that requires jailbreaking the iPhone.

There is a simpler way, however. We touched on the enabling of Emoji in a recent iPhone 101 article. This post over at MacTalk provides a very detailed step-by-step walkthrough for enabling Emoji on iPhones with firmware 2.2. Justine also covered this procedure for enabling Emoji over at her site.

The process involves purchasing and briefly using an application called FrostySpace ($0.99, iTunes link). The result is that a new international keyboard, "Emoji," is available for your use. Please note: FrostySpace is a ~~Japanese-language~~Taiwanese RSS feed reader that may be of limited utility for some users.

If you get this working (or don't) we'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

Thanks to Chris Pirillo and others for sending this in!

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Source: http://forums.mactalk.com.au/20/66078-enable-emoji-iphone-wi…

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Emoji, Japanese for "picture" + "letter," is a set of picture characters used in Japan much in the same way as emoticons here in the US....

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jnishi

Bit of an old article now, but someone managed to sneak an app onto the app store that enables emoji for free right now.

http://www.waterworld.com.hk/spell_number_easter_egg

Plus I believe Frostyplace is also temporarily free. Time for emoji to rule the airwaves.

February 20 2009 at 5:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ramy

It's traditional Chinese. Emojis enabled with FrostyPlace don't work with iPhone 2.2.1 software update. However, the developer of FrostyPlace released a note on the App Store :

"Frostyplace
IMPORTANT NOTE: One of the MOST POPULAR features of Frostyplace 1.1.1 will not work if you upgraded to iPhone OS 2.2.1 prior to install and run this app. You can update the OS once the new feature is enabled.

We have submitted a newer (1.1.2) version of the app which is compatible with the latest OS update and it is currently under Apple's review."

January 31 2009 at 1:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

AndrÃ©

YOU CAN GET FROSTYPLACE FREE!!! ONLY TODAY!!!

January 29 2009 at 12:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ArAgost

Works with 2.2.1 here! :D

January 28 2009 at 12:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ArAgost

Works like a charm here. I don't know if I can safely update to 2.2.1 tho...

January 27 2009 at 7:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mrchin

Not working here. I have 2.2.1 installed already, prior to trying frosty. And I get nowhere. Chat bubble icon showed some articles but after an hour of trying, still nothing. Restarts, and all. The RSS tab should show but nothing shows, even though the tutorials do show articles on this page. Help. Is it 2.2.1 that broke it?

January 27 2009 at 4:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to mrchin's comment

Tony C

Not working for me either and I haven't put 2.2.1 on my 3G yet. Grrrrr...

January 27 2009 at 4:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Todd

Dont waste your money on this if you have a jailbroken iPhone. Simply go to Cydia and download "Emoji" and turn on japanese emoji keyboard in your settings and there you have it!!

P.S. you can put Emoji icons as your carrier through "make it Mine"!!

January 27 2009 at 10:15 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Coen

Also, after you delete the app, the emoji's still work :)

January 27 2009 at 5:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Marcello

Tried yesterday and it works fine.
I'm still wondering why they're turned off in the first place, but that's a different story...

M

January 27 2009 at 4:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Shane

I got it to work. it wouldnt load anything so i clicked the other tab at the bottom. After a minute, i got a dialog to pop up. I waited another minute and then clicked ok. After that, i went into setting-general-international-japanese. i enabled the emoji and then deleted the app. I still have the emoji on my iPhone.

January 27 2009 at 12:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply