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How to change emoji skin tone on iPhone
Use a long press to choose an emoji skin-tone variant on iPhone; see why some emoji have no options and how multi-person variants differ.
A thumbs-up, a wave, a pair of hands in prayer — every one of them starts out a plain cartoon yellow the first time you tap it. That yellow is not a default skin tone so much as an absence of one. The five human tones underneath are there from the first time you open the emoji keyboard; they are just hidden behind a gesture instead of sitting on the keyboard as separate emoji.
The long-press gesture
This is a feature of the emoji keyboard itself, not of any one app, so it works the same in Messages, Notes, Instagram or anywhere else you can type an emoji.
- Open the emoji keyboard and find an emoji that involves a hand, a face, or a body — 👍, 🙌, 👋, 💁 and similar.
- Press and hold it instead of tapping. After a short beat, a small row pops up above it showing the same emoji in five additional tones.
- Slide your finger along the row, or just tap, to land on the one you want.
- Lift your finger. That tone is what gets typed, in place of the plain yellow version.
The row disappears and nothing is inserted if you press elsewhere on the screen instead of choosing one, so there is no wrong move in trying it.
Choose a variation for the emoji you are using
On Apple's emoji keyboard, touch and hold an emoji that offers skin-tone variations, then drag to the variation you want and release. The selected variation is inserted into the current text field. Do not assume that choosing one emoji changes the default for every other emoji or for a separate third-party emoji panel. If you want a different variation later, open that emoji's choices again and select it deliberately; messages already sent are not rewritten.
Why some emoji never show a tone row
The long-press only does anything on emoji that represent a human hand, face or body. Food, animals, weather, objects and symbols have no skin-tone variants to switch between, because there is no person in the image for a tone to apply to — holding down 🍕 or 🐶 just does nothing extra. If an emoji looks like it should have variants and does not, that is usually the reason.
Couples and families: more than one tone at once
Some emoji depict more than one person and offer combinations of skin tones. Available combinations and the way the picker presents them depend on the particular emoji and the current system version. Touch and hold the emoji to inspect its actual choices rather than assuming every couple or family supports independent tones for each person.
Why this varies between keyboards
A third-party keyboard draws its own emoji panel from scratch rather than borrowing Apple’s — it is a separate piece of code with its own layout, its own categories and its own gestures. Skin-tone support on a third-party keyboard is something that keyboard specifically has to build; it is not inherited automatically just because the phone runs iOS. If a keyboard’s emoji tab has no long-press response at all, that keyboard has not implemented it, rather than the phone withholding a system feature from it.
Where Kibo fits
Quick Kibo has its own emoji and kaomoji panels, including skin-tone choices on supported emoji. Because a third-party keyboard draws its own panel, its controls can differ from Apple's emoji keyboard. Test the long-press gesture on a supported emoji in the installed version. Choosing an emoji tone does not require Full Access; Quick Kibo uses that optional permission for its clipboard controls and location insertion key, not for emoji selection.
Frequently asked questions
Does one skin-tone choice change every emoji?
Do not rely on a global change. Choose the variation shown for the emoji you want to insert, and check the result in the text field. A separate third-party emoji panel can behave differently.
Why does holding down some emoji do nothing?
Only emoji depicting a human hand, face or body carry skin-tone variants. Food, animals, objects and symbols have nothing to switch between, so a long-press on those has no extra row to show.
Can a couple or family emoji have two different skin tones?
Some multi-person emoji provide mixed-tone variants. Touch and hold the specific emoji to see which combinations your current keyboard and system version actually offer.
Try it on your own keyboard
Kibo is a free custom keyboard for iPhone with real mechanical key sounds, a wardrobe of themes and RGB backlight effects. No account, no ads, and it works with Full Access left off.