RYS 📲 February 20

Emoji Shortcuts & More

Happy 😊 Thursday!

Today I want to share my best practices for using emojis in the caption field and introduce you to text shortcuts for these FUN little icons.

Best Practices

Limit the overall number of emojis you use to a dozen or less. These searchable icons lose their magic if you are trying to use too many. Trust me on this!
You don’t need to add an emoji if you are not going to search for it. Think about how YOU want to find your images.
If an image requires 2 emojis, add both! See my example below.
Keep your emoji key/list close for easy reference—mine is in my Notes app.

If you want to use ALL the same emojis I have tested and use, you can print my Emoji List HERE. Note: You will have to log in first!

I have used two emojis in the caption field of this photo—the church where my 2nd great grandmother was christened.

Let’s swipe up to reveal the details and the link …

I added the 🗒️ to mark and make easily searchable the details I’ve added about this photo. As I was doing some research about small Danish churches I found a YouTube video that I want to return to, so I added the 🔗 emoji and pasted the link as well.

When I do a spotlight search in Apple Photos for 🗒️ (the notepad) this image will be in the results—along with 159 other images.

When I search for 🔗 (the link) this image will be in the results (with a total of 39 additional images)

When I search both emojis (🗒️ 🔗 ) my search results are this image and just 6 others.

Emoji Shortcuts via Text Replacement

IF you are enthusiastic about adding emoji’s to caption fields, you might be interested in text-replacement shortcuts that I’ve been testing for the last 3 weeks.

Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement

Here you can assign letters of the alphabet to text phrases—OR—emojis. I have assigned 8 of the least used letters in the English alphabet to my emojis.

This means when I swipe up to add a caption, I do NOT have to open the full emoji alphabet keyboard and search the specific emoji I’m looking for—super time saving!

🎶 However, there is a downside to this shortcut!
A text replacement is universal, so the letters you assign to emojis will produce emojis ANYTIME you type that letter.

I will demonstrate this next week during our LIVE Q&A with some workarounds I’ve discovered, so in the meantime—if you’re interested—give text replacement a try!

Rock Your Scroll course login

To enter the Rock Your Scroll 2025 course page, simply click the orange button below and use the password: JOYonmyphone

Please NOTE: THE J-O-Y are capital letters and the rest are lower case.

Rock Your Scroll Login

Password: JOYonmyphone

If you need to log in again, click on the Courses tab on my website, www.stacyjulian.com. Scroll down to where all the course logins are located (look for circles!) and click on Rock Your Scroll 2025. Then enter the password and ready to rock!