Learn how to configure your physical keyboard so that pressing the globe key instantly brings up the iPad emoji picker anywhere in iPadOS.
If your iPad’s physical keyboard doesn’t have a dedicated Emoji key, you can assign the iPad emoji picker to the rarely used globe key.
Assign the globe key to iPad emoji picker
If you’d like to bring up the floating emoji picker on your iPad with a simple press of the globe key on your physical keyboard, you’ll first need to enable that option in your keyboard settings.
- Open the Settings app on your iPad.
- Tap General.
- Tap Keyboard.
- Now select the Hardware Keyboard option. You will see this only if a hardware keyboard is connected to your iPad.
- Slide the switch next to Press globe key for Emoji to the ON position.
Now pressing the otherwise useless globe key will show the handy emoji picker no matter where you are in iPadOS. To quickly find the right emoji for the moment, press the globe key when you’re in a text field. Just just like that — the emoji picker pops up. Even with this setting enabled, you can still access your input switcher at any time with the Control-Space combo.
The setting to use the globe key for the emoji picker only applies to hardware keyboards.
The globe key can be assigned to the emoji picker on your Mac, too.
Emoji keyboard won’t show up?
If the emoji keyboard won’t show up, be sure that it’s turned on in the first place. You can add the emoji keyboard to the list of your onscreen keyboards by going to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard, then choose “Emoji” from the keyboard list.
If you have remapped the globe key to serve as the Escape key (or another modifier key), then the emoji picker obviously won’t show up upon pressing the physical globe key.
To fix that, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Hardware Keyboard > Modifier Keys, then touch the “Globe Key” option and set it to perform the function of the globe key.
Bonus tip: Access the emoji picker on Mac
macOS has long provided the system-wide emoji picker that lets you browse emoji by category and favorite your commonly used characters so you can get to them faster and more. In addition, it also provides a similarly helpful shortcut for quickly accessing the emoji picker on your Mac.
Go to System Settings or System Preferences > Keyboard and set “Press Fn/Globe key to” to “Show Emoji & Symbols.” Now, you can press the Fn or Globe key to invoke the emoji picker on your Mac.
You can also set the globe key or the Fn key on the Mac to change your keyboard language, start dictation, or do nothing. Assigning the emoji picker to the Fn key is the fastest way to get to your emoji on the Mac in the absence of a physical keyboard with a dedicated key.
More on emojis: