Why do I get question marks instead of emojis from people texting me to my iPhone?

SMS emoji should be universal. HOWEVER, there are new emoji added fairly frequently, and you must have the latest version of the operating systems on both the sending and receiving device that support the most recent update. Here’s some good information on how Emoji are created (and how to request new ones): https://home.unicode.org

Try force rebooting your device by pressing the side button and the home button at the same time until you see the Apple logo.

They might be using an android or an updated iOS system. Emojis that aren’t ‘Apple’ emojis don’t show in iMessage- they instead appear as a white box or a question mark. Hope that helps!

There is no such thing as an “Apple” emoji. All manufacturers agree to the same standard for recognizing emoji. If an emoji sent from one manufacturer’s device to another manufacturer’s device and it doesn’t display as an emoji there is something wrong with the sending device. Apple correctly displays all emoji defined by the Unicode Consortium. If a manufacturer chooses to create their own emoji independent of the standard that is colossal stupidity. But I have yet to encounter any “outlaw” emoji sent from Android devices. Apple’s interpretation of what it should look like may differ in details from what the sender sees, but iOS will still always display something.

They might be using an android or an updated iOS system. Emojis that aren’t ‘Apple’ emojis don’t show in iMessage- they instead appear as a white box or a question mark. Hope that helps!

That's incorrect. I get emoji from Android users quite regularly.

CBrooks35 wrote:

Oh wow. Who just removed both of my comments.

One of the Hosts (moderators). They are the only ones who can remove posts. You should have gotten an email explaining why it was removed.

Sorry, didn’t mean it like that. That’s the only way I could think of describing it. I didn’t mean to add a title to the emoji- and it wasn’t the point of my post... I really just meant that emojis that iPhone doesn’t recognize might show up in other places, but not in iMessage. That’s just been my experience with my friends who have androids. Sorry if I used the wrong words. Didn’t mean it

Oh wow. Who just removed both of my comments.

Yeah I sure did