Recent Emojis Not Staying in Front

I recently upgraded to an IPhone 16. When I had my iPhone 12 every emoji I used stayed in front of the emoji selection as soon as I used it. Now they do not. In the very second I use one I have to go searching thru the list again to reuse it right after. My phone is updated…emoji keyboard is correct…I’ve checked everything. It’s quite annoying. My older phone never did this. Is there a way to fix this?



Posted on Jan 20, 2025 06:26 AM

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Posted on Feb 3, 2025 01:58 PM

Recently used emojis on my iMac are not being added to the recent emojis section after I updated to Sequoia 15.3 last week.


(The functionality does work fine on my iPhone after the recent update.)

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8 replies

Mar 6, 2025 12:27 PM in response to Gingerartist1

I have some 'stuck' recent emojis that don't get pushed down the recents list after not being used for a while. But when I use one that is not in the favorites they do get added to the recents. Or if I use a less frequent recent one it gets moved up higher in the list of recents.


I have an iPhone 15 and keep it up to date with all the phone and app updates.


[The recent emojis list on my iMac M3 is completely frozen in the state as it was at the beginning of Feb before the Sequoia 15.3 update.]


How is such a widespread bug in such a heavily used part of the phone/OS still not fixed? Absolutely ridiculous!!!!!!!!!

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Jan 20, 2025 11:22 PM in response to Gingerartist1

The default iOS keyboard organizes emoji categories in the following order: Recent, Smileys, Animals, Food, Activities, Travel, Objects, Symbols, and Flags. This order is fixed and cannot be changed.


The "Recent" category dynamically updates based on the emojis you use most frequently, regardless of their original category. Additionally, the keyboard remembers the last emoji category you accessed. For instance, if you last selected an emoji from the "Food" category, the keyboard will reopen to that category the next time you use it.


Similarly, if you use emojis from the "Recent" category, the keyboard will default to that category the next time. This behavior adapts to your usage for convenience.


Mar 6, 2025 12:11 PM in response to J-Apple324

Interesting that your phone is doing what it should. I am updated. It's never worked. My recently used emojis are still not being added to the recent emojis section on my Iphone 16 Pro. They keep ones there that I have hardly used - as soon as I use one it does not stay in recents - I have to go fishing for it again and again. My phone is up to date - This has been the case since I got this new phone - I never had an issue with this before. Many seem to think the updates are to blame but they are not - I always update - always. Since it is a new phone I only can assume it's the phone - I can't imagine what else it is and apple has not been helpful.

Jan 21, 2025 05:37 AM in response to SravanKrA

I appreciate the response but I’m not sure u r understanding my issue. I understand how emoji categories work but The category thing is not my problem & it never was on my old phone either which was a 12. If I type a black heart for instance then another different emoji that’s in front & I want another black heart, I have to go fishing for the black heart again all the way to where it is in the heart category. Before, in the second I used an emoji it stayed in front. I didn’t have to go searching for it again. I’ve tested this with different hearts…some colors I choose stay in front & others I have to search for again which makes no sense. I also find with my new 16 when I choose the emoji keyboard to pop up there is a delay I never had before. It does not come up right away. Also a type search for an emoji is not working like it used to either. U type what u want exactly like before & it doesn’t come up. It is incredibly frustrating that I never had these issues with my old phone. Every time we improve to something we think is better there’s a glitch that makes things worse that nobody can explain. This has to be an Apple issue/glitch whatever. These things should not be harder & worse than an older version of a phone.

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Recent Emojis Not Staying in Front

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