Emoji lovers are likely missing out on one of the best kept secrets of the iPhone: a secret emoticon keyboard. Instead of waiting for Apple to roll out the next Unicode update, iPhone users can pay a quick visit to their Settings option and unlock a hidden set of emoticons.
Mashable reports that the Japanese Kana keyboard can provide users with access to over 100 fun emoticons like @(・●・)@ and *(^o^)/*.
To use them, simply go to: Settings > General > Keyboard > Add New Keyboard > Japanese > Kana . Then, click the globe icon on your keyboard to select the Japanese keyboard. To the right of the microphone symbol will be a “^_^” icon -- selecting that and swiping up will reveal a plethora of emojis.
The Japanese Kana keyboard provides a unique set of emojis due to the letters, numbers, punctuations and symbols that are unique to the Japanese language. This emoticon style is called kaomoji -- a word that literally translates to “face mask” -- and it offers variety to emoticons made with the English-language keyboard.
