You should see something like this. The person who sent you the message should have given you a hint. If the hint is one of the 7 or so large emoticons in the centre, click that emoticon
Step 3: if you don't see the "hint" emoticon, swipe central part to left
If you can't see the emoticon matching the hint you were given in the centre, swipe the group of centre emoticons to the left.
Step 4: if you still can't see the hint emoticon, click the + button
If you still can't see an emoticon in the centre matching the hint you were given, click on the red + button in the white circle
Step 5: keep swiping the top emoticons left until you see the one in the hint & click that
In the example above the hint was "lady in red" (actually hit by Chris de Burgh), which hasn't appeared yet, so we keep swiping left until it does (next image)
Step 6: click on the emoticon matching the hint, and the message should be deciphered
In the above, the hint was "lady in red", so after swiping the emoticons left, it appeared. Clicking on it shows the deciphered message.