Is there a way to reset my recently used emoji keyboard on iPhone?

Try going over to Settings > Keyboard > Emoji and turn off the Stickers. If that ends up getting rid of it, turn the Stickers back on, open an iMessage chat, click on Emoji, go over to the sticker section and press Open Stickers and go to the recents section. Press and hold the emoji and delete it.

Hopefully that helps! I'd been trying to get rid of it for months but it wouldn't budge, turns out it was a sticker

I understand your frustration with the persistent emoji issue. Despite your efforts to resolve it, such as tapping other emojis, resetting the keyboard dictionary, and updating iOS, the problem persists. It appears that there may be a bug in iOS 18’s emoji caching mechanism, particularly if it is causing a specific emoji to remain locked in your recent list.

You are not alone in encountering this issue. Several other users have reported similar emoji glitches on iOS 18.4.x. I recommend submitting feedback directly to Apple through their website: Feedback - iPhone - Apple This will help them identify and address the problem in a future update.

You can't edit the recently used list at all. The only option I can think of to reset this would be to go to Settings > General > Keyboards > Remove the Emoji Keyboard, then add it back. I haven't tried it, but think it would work. Personally, just for one emoji, I think I wouldn't bother with it.