So today I tried sending that cool jigsaw puzzle emoji to my group chat, but guess what? It showed up as a blank box on my buddy’s iPhone. Totally frustrating! I thought maybe my Android was being weird, so I grabbed my wife’s iPhone to test – same thing happened when she sent it back. Okay, time to fix this mess.
First Step: Basic Phone Reboot
Started with the old “turn it off and on again” trick. Held the power button on my Pixel 7 until it shut down. Waited a full minute, fired it back up. Sent the emoji again to my test chat… still broken. Did the same with the iPhone 13 – force restarted by mashing volume up/down and side button. Nope, still showing that stupid empty square.
Android Fix Attempts
Got serious with my Android first. Went into Settings > Apps and hunted down Gboard:
- Cleared the cache first – still broken
- Cleared all data next (had to redo my keyboard settings… annoying)
- Updated every Google app in Play Store
- Changed keyboard to SwiftKey temporarily
Nothing worked until I installed the latest beta Gboard update manually. Suddenly – boom! The jigsaw emoji finally appeared normally in WhatsApp.
iPhone Struggle Session
Now for the iPhone disaster. Tried all the standard stuff:
- Checked for iOS updates – already on 17.4.1
- Reset keyboard dictionary in Settings > General > Transfer
- Installed Grammarly keyboard to test
Still broken. Then I remembered Apple’s weird font issues. Went nuclear: Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > turned ON “Font Download”. The phone downloaded fonts for like two minutes. Tested in Messages app and holy cow – the damn puzzle piece finally showed!
Final Proof & Extra Tips
Sent screenshots to my group proving both phones now display the emoji properly. Few things I figured out:
- Android usually just needs keyboard app updates
- iPhones might need that font trick
- Restart apps AFTER updates otherwise they keep caching junk
Took me like an hour of messing around but honestly? Seeing that stupid little puzzle piece appear feels like victory. So satisfying when the simple fixes actually work!
