So you’re having a chat conversation and your friend tells you something that makes you want to send a hug, but your tapback options don’t include the emoji for that. Here’s how to add new, custom tapback options to your iPhone!
Note that Apple has said that they are including the option to change emojis in tapbacks in iOS 18, so we’re including those directions for if/when that happens. However, where our method adds the emoji as an option permanently, the iOS 18 option is ad hoc, meaning you have to do it each time you want to use an emoji that isn’t in the default tapback set.
Care Emoji Added as Trackback
How to Add New Custom Tapback Emojis to the iPhone Tapbacks
The way to add new emojis to your Tapback options all lays within the sticker magic of the iPhone. As Apple explains, “In the Photos app you can make stickers from the subjects in your photos and animated stickers from the subjects in your Live Photos. Then use your stickers to decorate messages, photos, notes, and more.”
The way to do this is to open up a picture in Photos, and then longpress on the area of the picture that you want to turn into a sticker. So, in our example, we took a screenshot of the ‘hug’ or ‘care’ emoji from Facebook, and then opened the screenshot in the Photo app on our iPhone, and longpressed on the hug emoji.
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NOTE: The thing which you want to make into a sticker must be the primary, dominant ‘subject’ in the photo, so you may need to crop the photo to make it the largest, primary thing.
When you longpress on it, a menu will pop up at the top which says “Copy | Add Sticker | Share”. Select ‘Add Sticker’.
Now when you press on a message to add a Tapback, you will have a new option, ‘Add Sticker’! Just click on that and select which sticker you want to add as your Tapback!
And that’s it! That’s how to add a customer Tapback to your iPhone!
Care Emoji Added as Trackback
How to Add Custom Emojis to Tapbacks with iOS 18
According to Apple, with the release of iOS 18 users will be able to use alternate emojis as tapbacks like this (however they will not be added as an ongoing option, you will have to do this each time you want to use an alternate emoji).
– Open Messages
– Select a chat
– Longpress on a message
– In the tapbacks bubble, scroll right and tap the smiley, which will invoke the ‘add’ optioni
– Use the emoji keyboard to find the emoji what you want to use
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and we don't subject you to ads or annoying video pop-ups. But it does cost us out of our pocket to keep the site going (going on 20 years now!) So your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated!
Receipts will come from ISIPP.
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