Hmm, you mean in iMessage? They've had them enabled a little while now, maybe two years, but they are slightly inconvenient to access. So one often sticks with the classic "haha, !!, ?" set.
Discussion
I meant like this. We could be a couple dozen rows into this Road To The Future by now
A set of keys for emojis?! That's a terrible idea lol
You're right. Better to start with something like this and then just remove the letters 