Technology

Emojis for dummies: How to add emojis into your text messages, emails

Published

1 year ago

June 18, 2024

Emojis for dummies: How to add emojis into your text messages, emails

Emojis can be a fun and lighthearted way to add some “emotion” to your text messages or emails. Emojis have come a long way; back in the day, all you could really do was send a smiley face, sad face or winky face by using colons, semicolons and parentheses. Now, you can send all sorts of emojis, not just faces, but images of foods, objects, landmarks, you name it, to liven up your message.

But how do you add them? Though some devices and platforms make it easy to add emojis to messages, this isn’t the case across the board. What was meant to be a fun addition to your texting experience is now becoming a frustration.

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Emojis on iPhone (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

How to add emojis in text messages

Adding emojis in text messages is relatively easy. Just open up your SMS messaging app, and at the bottom of the conversation where you input your text, look out for a smiley face icon. When you click on it, you’ll see the option for Emoji, stickers and GIFs. Click on “Emoji” and browse the long list of them.

You can scroll all the way down to find which Emoji you want or click on the different icons that symbolize separate categories. You can also search for what you’re looking for in the “Search Emoji” box.

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To add emojis on Android

Open any messaging app.
Tap the text field where you type your message.
Press the smiley face icon on the keyboard to open the emoji keyboard.
Swipe through the categories or use the search feature to find an emoji.
Tap the emoji to insert it into your message.

To add emojis on iPhone

Open your messaging app and go to a conversation.
Tap the text input field.
Press the emoji button on the keyboard (it looks like a smiley face).
You will be taken to the emoji keyboard, where you can select or search for emojis.
Tap an emoji to add it to your text.

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How to add emojis in emails

Emoji icon on PC (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

To add emojis on Gmail

Open Gmail and start composing a new email or reply to an existing one.
Click on the smiley face icon in the lower part of the email composition box (next to the formatting options).
A pop-up window with emojis will appear. Select the emoji you want to insert into your email.

To add emojis on AOL

Log into your AOL Mail.
Start composing a new email.
Click on the emoji icon (often found in the formatting toolbar).
Select the emoji you want to include in your email.

To add emojis on Yahoo! Mail

Open Yahoo! Mail and begin composing a new email.
There is an emoji icon in the toolbar at the bottom of the compose window. Click it.
A menu with emojis will appear. Click on an emoji to insert it into your email.

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How to add an emoji to a subject line

Adding emojis to a subject line is not as straightforward as adding them to an email. You’ll need to first insert the emoji you want into the body of the email or copy it from an emoji website. Then, highlight the emoji, copy it and paste it into the subject line. Doing so can draw attention to your email with a subject line that stands out.

Emojis (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

ARE YOU USING THESE EMOJIS CORRECTLY?

How many emojis exist?!

In total, there are 3,782 emojis in the Unicode Standard as of September 2023, according to Emojipedia. This website is also where you can find the complete index of all the emojis that exist. Here are some additional key emoji statistics for 2024:

Over 10 billion emojis are used every day around the world.
44% of customers are more likely to buy something if it’s advertised with emojis.
The most used emoji on X is Face With Tears of Joy.
86% of emoji users on X are 24 or younger.
Only 7% of people use the peach emoji as a fruit; the rest use it for non-fruit meanings.
The nail polish emoji is considered the most misunderstood emoji in 2024 based on a survey.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

Adding emojis to your text messages and emails is a fun way to lighten up the conversation and make it a little more relatable, depending on who you’re talking to. Have fun with them.

Do you use emojis when you text or send an email? Why or why not? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Cyberpunk Edgerunners 2 will be even sadder and bloodier

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2025

Press Room

Cyberpunk Edgerunners 2 will be even sadder and bloodier

The new season will be directed by Kai Ikarashi, who also directed episode six in the first season, “Girl on Fire.” There’s no word yet on when Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 will premiere, but they did show off this new poster artwork. A trailer will be shown later tonight during a panel at 8:30PM PT for the animation studio, Trigger.

Showrunner and writer Bartosz Sztybor said during Friday’s panel that for season one, “I just wanted to make the whole world sad… when people are sad, I’m a bit happy,” and that this new 10-episode season will be “…of course, sadder, but it will be also darker, more bloody, and more raw.”

A brief summary of the follow-up series tells fans what to expect following the end of David’s story in season one:

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 presents a new standalone 10-episode story from the world of Cyberpunk 2077— a raw chronicle of redemption and revenge. In a city that thrives in the spotlight of violence, one question remains: when the world is blinded by spectacle, what extremes do you have to go to make your story matter?

Technology

How Google’s ‘Ask Photos’ uses AI to find the pictures you want

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2025

Press Room

How Google’s ‘Ask Photos’ uses AI to find the pictures you want

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Google Photos has always been a handy way to store and organize your pictures, but its latest feature, Ask Photos, is taking things to a whole new level.

Powered by Google’s Gemini AI, Ask Photos lets you search your photo library using natural language. Let’s take a look at what makes Google Photos AI search so different, what’s improved and how it could change the way you interact with your memories.

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Google Photos’ “Ask Photos” with Gemini (Google)

What is Google Photos’ AI search?

Ask Photos is Google’s new AI-powered search tool inside Google Photos. Instead of typing simple keywords or scrolling endlessly, you can now ask complex questions. Some examples are, “Show me the best photo from each national park I’ve visited,” or “What did I eat on my trip to Italy?” The AI understands context, dates, locations and even themes, making it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for.

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How does Ask Photos work?

Ask Photos uses the Gemini AI model, designed specifically for understanding the content and context of your images. When you ask a question, Gemini analyzes your photos, looking at things like location, people and even the quality of each shot. For example, if you ask for the best birthday party photos, it can identify party themes and highlight your favorite moments.

You can use Ask Photos for both simple and complex searches:

Simple: “Show me pictures of my dog.”
Complex: “Find all the photos from 2025 when I had short hair.”
Contextual: “Remind me what themes we’ve had for Lena’s birthday parties?”

Google Photos’ “Ask Photos” with Gemini (Google)

What’s new and improved?

After pausing the rollout earlier this year to address speed and quality issues, Google resumed and expanded Ask Photos to more users in the U.S. Now, Ask Photos displays classic search results alongside Gemini AI results on a single page, streamlining your search experience. Simple searches like “cats” or “nature” deliver instant results, while complex queries return faster and more accurate answers. If you prefer classic search, you can opt out of Ask Photos at any time by visiting your app settings and toggling off the “Search with Ask Photos” feature. This flexibility lets you search the way you want.

Availability and privacy

Ask Photos rolls out to more eligible users in the U.S., beyond early access testers. Requirements include being 18 or older, using English (U.S.) as your account language and enabling Face Groups. Google confirms your private photos remain untouched by advertising, and only specific queries may be reviewed to improve the service. Your answers stay private unless you contact support.

Google Photos’ “Ask Photos” with Gemini (Google)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Google Photos AI search is making it easier than ever to find specific memories, whether you’re looking for a single photo or trying to remember the details of a special event. With natural language search and the power of Gemini AI, Ask Photos could become the smartest way to browse your photo library.

How comfortable are you with AI analyzing your personal photos, and where do you draw the line between convenience and privacy? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com/Contact

Technology

Meet Soham Parekh, the engineer burning through tech by working at three to four startups simultaneously

Published

4 days ago

July 3, 2025

Press Room

Meet Soham Parekh, the engineer burning through tech by working at three to four startups simultaneously

One name is popping up a lot across tech startup social media right now, and you might’ve heard it: Soham Parekh. On X, people are joking that Parekh is single-handedly holding up all modern digital infrastructure, while others are posting memes about him working in front of a dozen different monitors or filling in for the thousands of people that Microsoft just laid off.

From what social media posts suggest, Parekh is actually a software engineer who seems to have interviewed at dozens of tech startups over the years, while also juggling multiple jobs at the same time. Several startups had this revelation on July 2nd, when Suhail Doshi, founder of the AI design tool Playground, posted a PSA on X, saying:

PSA: there’s a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time. He’s been preying on YC companies and more. Beware.
I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn’t stopped a year later. No more excuses.

Doshi’s post was quickly flooded with replies that included similar stories. “We interviewed this guy too, but caught this during references checks,” Variant founder Ben South said. “Turns out he had 5-6 profiles each with 5+ places he actually worked at.” When asked what tipped him off about Parekh, South told The Verge that his suspicions arose during Parekh’s interview, prompting his team to do a reference check earlier than they usually would. “That’s when we learned he was working multiple jobs,” South said.

Parekh’s resume and pitch email look good at first glance, which helps him garner interest from multiple companies. “He had a prolific GitHub contribution graph and prior startup experience,” Marcus Lowe, founder of the AI app builder Create, told The Verge. “He was also extremely technically strong during our interview process.”

Just one day after this all unfolded, Parekh came forward in an interview with the daily tech show TBPN. Parekh confirmed what many tech startup founders had suspected: he had been working for multiple companies at the same time. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done. That’s not something I endorse either. But no one really likes to work 140 hours a week, I had to do it out of necessity,” Parekh said. “I was in extremely dire financial circumstances.”

Parekh seems to have made a good first impression on many people. Digger CEO Igor Zalutski said his company “nearly hired him,” as he “seemed so sharp” during interviews, while AIVideo.com cofounder Justin Harvey similarly said that he was “THIS close to hiring him,” adding that “he actually crushed the interview.” Vapi cofounder Jordan Dearsley said Parekh “was the best technical interview” he’s seen, but he “did not deliver on his projects.”

The startups that did hire Parekh didn’t seem to keep him around for long. Lowe said that he noticed something was off when Parekh kept making excuses to push back his start date. After telling Lowe that he had to delay working because he had a trip planned to see his sister in New York, Parekh later claimed that he couldn’t start working following the trip because he was sick. “For whatever reason, something just felt off,” Lowe said.

That’s when Lowe visited Parekh’s GitHub profile and realized he was committing code to a private repository during the time he was supposed to be sick. Lowe also found recent commits to another San Francisco-based startup. “Did some digging, noticed that he was in some of their marketing materials,” Lowe said. “I was like, ‘Huh, but he didn’t declare this on his resume. This feels weird.’” Create ended up letting Parekh go after he failed to complete an assignment.

It looks like Parekh even had a stint at Meta. In 2021, the company published a post highlighting his story as a contributor working on mixed-reality experiences in WebXR. In the post, Parekh said that he found “that the best way to get better at software development is to not only practice it but to use it to solve real world problems.” Meta didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Parekh’s purported scheme may have been uncovered, but his outlook might not be all bad — if you believe him. Parekh claims he landed a job at Darwin, an AI video remixing startup. “Earlier today, I signed an exclusive founding deal to be founding engineer at one company and one company only,” Parekh posted on X. “They were the only ones willing to bet on me at this time.”