Emoji and mic icons unusable?

Hi mark.mckay,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. We want to help make sure your device is working as expected. To help resolve unexpected behavior with emojis or your microphone, restart your device. A restart is a simple step that can resolve a variety of concerns. See how here:

1. Press and hold either volume button and the side button until the power-off slider appears.

2.

3. Drag the slider, then wait 30 seconds for your device to turn off. If your device is frozen or unresponsive, force restart your device.

4. To turn your device back on, press and hold the side button (on the right side of your iPhone) until you see the Apple logo.

See more about those steps here: Restart your iPhone - Apple Support

If a restart doesn't resolve this, let us know more about the behavior you're seeing that. Are you unable to select the microphone or choose an emoji?

Thanks.

Hello mark.mckay,

To isolate the issue a bit more, we have a couple of questions. Which app(s) is this happening with? Is it only these two emojis that won’t respond? Does that area of the screen respond when using other apps?

Use emoji on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support -- Since some of the Apple apps have been a bit redesigned with iOS 16, do the steps in this article help at all?

Take care.

Hello again mark.mckay,

Then, we recommend contacting Apple Support: Get Support

All the best.