Because Emoji is now a standard international keyboard in iOS 5, you can easily add some mood to your iMessages and liven up any text entry with emoticons without having to download a bunch of apps from the App Store to access it

One of the little things appearing briefly in a slide during Apple’s keynote talk Monday was the Emoji keyboard in iOS 5. Originating from Japan, the emoji picture characters are standardized and many phones support them without requiring a Japanese operator (heck, even Gmail supports emojis). The Emoji keyboard is not new to the iPhone, but those who’ve used it in iOS 4 are painfully aware it has never been designed to work like a normal keyboard for the rest of us. You either had to use third-party Emoji apps from the App Store to access it or use emoticons via the clunky Japanese Romaji keyboard. Not anymore, Emoji is now a standard international keyboard accessible in any app. Here’s how it is enabled…

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To enable the standard Emoji international keyboard, go to the Settings app, navigate to General > Keyboard > International Keyboards and tap Add New Keyboard… From the list of international keyboard layouts choose Emoji. From now on, whenever you want to add some flair to your messages, switch to the beautiful Emoji layout by holding the globe key on your virtual keyboard. You can swipe through different emoticons, choose between mood categories on the bottom and access the section with your most recently and frequently used emoticons. If you instant message a lot, and especially if you’re excited about Apple’s new iMessage service, the Emoji keyboard is Godsent.

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