Unable to remove stickers and emojis from my iPhone keyboard after iOS 18.3 update

Removing stickers, Memoji, or emojis from an iPhone entirely is not an option because these are integral parts of iOS. Emojis and stickers are embedded into the system as part of the keyboard and messaging features. Memoji, specifically, is a personal avatar feature tied to the user's iCloud account, and it's designed to be a fun and customizable addition to messages, FaceTime, and other iOS features.

While you can manage and remove specific stickers or Memoji stickers from apps like Messages, the core functionality that integrates these features into the iPhone cannot be disabled or removed completely from the system. If you prefer not to use them, you can simply avoid adding them in messages or use settings to limit their visibility, but they will remain part of iOS as they are considered built-in features for personalization and communication.

Unfortunately I had to just delete them from my stickers keyboard.

I hit the plus (+) when I’m in iMessage, then I go to stickers. Once in the stickers I tap and hold on each sticker and a “delete” option should pop up for you. So now I have no stickers at all. But this did successfully remove them from my emoji keyboard at least!

Idk if you have resolved this issue but if you go to your stickers in the messages app. Like just choose a message with someone and press the + and go to stickers. When you hold down on the stickers you can delete them. That takes them out of your recent emojis. Idk if that helps :)

Not sure if you guys have since figured this out, but it took a LOT of messing around for me to finally fix it. It's "easy" once you do it, but was so roundabout and unnecessary. My iPhone is iOS 18.3.2 currently.

1. Open the emoji keyboard in Messages
2. Click the Stickers button in the "+" menu (the emojis should become very large in size)
3. Click the Clock tab that appears at the top of that menu (on the far left)
4. Press/hold the Sticker for about 1-ish second (it will "expand" a tiny bit, showing that you've selected it, and a light glow encompasses it for a second)
5. When you let go, a there should be a banner above it that says "Remove." (You can remove Stickers, emojis, and memoji stickers by following those steps).

I have verified that YES it will remove it from your recently used emojis WITHOUT you having to delete the sticker OR the memoji.

I wish I would've tinkered with it for just a few minutes more, because I ended up deleting the stickers. But it was only 2 of them, so it won't be a hardship to get them back.

Happy deleting, y'all :D

OMG THANK YOU!!! My most recent emojis became a junk fest (and as others have said, even with bitmojis I haven’t used in a year or more)! This worked and I can’t thank you enough GothieGirl!! I also had deleted my stickers but the bitmojis were still hanging out in recents 🙄. So again, thanks for helping more than Apple seems to be willing to do at this point.

[Edited by Moderator]

Thank you SO much! I have been trying to solve this issue for MONTHS, and none of the recommendations online were helping. This actually worked!! I now have my recently used emojis back to normal! Thank you thank you thank you!

Thank you a thousand times!! 🙏 It was so embarrassing to accidentally send big emoji stickers in conversations instead of putting an emoji in the text I am in the middle of composing. Your suggestion is the only one finally working for me. 👏

I am also having this issue, and it's extremely annoying.

I did find a workaround via my Apple MacBook Pro. I went into iMessage on there and was able to right click and delete the sticker from Recently Used. It then also deleted from my iMessage on my phone.

Try these fixes:

1. Restart iPhone.
2. Toggle Memoji Stickers off/on in Settings > General > Keyboard.
3. Remove & re-add Emoji Keyboard in Settings > Keyboard.
4. Reset Keyboard Dictionary in Settings > Reset.
5. Check for iOS updates.
6. Contact Apple Support if nothing works.

I also am seeing this issue. I have Stickers toggled off in the Emoji section at the bottom of the General > Keyboard page, and indeed emoji/memoji stickers have been disabled in the Messages app. But if I use the emoji keyboard in other apps like Signal, Facebook, or even Apple’s own Notes, stickers appear again. When they do appear again, they also mess up my most recent emoji, as all the emoji stickers I’ve previously used will appear in the most recent section (yes, even ones I haven’t used for over a year, and yes, I have reset custom dictionaries multiple times). Obviously this isn’t impeding functionality, it’s just annoying, but it would be really amazing to get it fixed and to have a consistent experience across all apps.

Same here. This is very annoying to me. The setting to use stickers from the emoji keyboard is off. I saw a post on Reddit stating that this is a known bug to Apple. But that post was 2 weeks old already. I just deleted all my stickers. I didn’t want to do that but, I didn’t want them in my frequently used emoji section MORE. I’d rather not use stickers at all. Can’t believe it’s taking them so long to fix it

I am also having this issue. It happened as soon as I updated to iOS 18.3 overnight. I previously had removed the stickers from the leftmost part of the emoji keyboard (next to the recently used emojis) and all of a sudden, even with the stickers option still toggled off, the stickers are back. I keep accidentally sliding all the way to the left to access recently used emojis and getting stickers instead. It's extremely annoying that this can't be fixed.

I’ve tried all these steps multiple times and in various orders and it hasn’t changed anything. Actually, the last time I updated my phone it made it worse—I used to not see stickers in Messages, but now they’re present whether toggled in Settings or not.

Same problem here... the two options on the bottom left of the emoji menu in Messages are SUPER ANNOYING.

I had previously switched these off, but since updating to 18.3.1 they are back like an unwelcome fart in a lift.

Dear Apple software, please can we get a working option to remove these ASAP? Many thanks.