Apple provides support for the popular Emoji emoticons in iOS 5 by default. While this is enough for most users ( and it works cross platform so users using Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and some with Android can see them as well ), those users who don’t have support for Emoji in their operating system are left stuck without any expressive medium. Such users can either stick to smileys such as 
, 
, 
or they can just use Unicode characters.
iPhone doesn’t have support for a Unicode keyboard by default but this new Cydia tweak called PictoKeyboard fills this gap. Using this keyboard, you can insert Unicode characters in your notes, email, messages, apps, tweets, Facebook status updates and much more. Basically, where ever you can use a keyboard in iOS.
PictoKeyboard just adds a new keyboard type in your iOS settings. To activate it, just go to your keyboard settings and add it as an international keyboard. PictoKeyboard replaces either of the following language keyboards: Catalan, Croatian, Icelandic, Latvian or Lithuanian. You can chose this in the PictoKeyboard settings. Then you can just use it anywhere you have your keyboard open by tapping the globe button at the bottom of your keyboard and switching to the Unicode PictoKeyboard.
Unicode characters are really colorless and appear in black and white only so don’t complain if you find these ugly. One advantage of using these is that they would show on a wide range of platforms ( wider range than the platforms that support Emoji ) so you can be sure that your smiley would get more eye balls.
PictoKeyboard is available for free in the BigBoss repository in Cydia so you would need to have a jailbroken iOS device to use it. It works only on iOS 5 on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. If you’re a heavy messages user or status updater, this tweak is a must have for you.
P.S. it also has the Apple logo
