Emoji Picker

How Do I Find and Copy an Emoji?

Type :thumbsup: in Search emojis with Category set to All categories, then select thumbs up to copy 👍. For a toned version, open Skin tone and output options and choose Medium under Skin tone before selecting it. With Copy format set to Emoji text, the result is 👍🏽. You receive text characters you can paste into a message, document, or caption, rather than an image download.

The same pick has different representations depending on Copy format. This worked example uses the supported thumbs up entry with the Medium modifier. HTML references below are shown literally so you can compare them with the copied source.

One medium-tone thumbs up in the three copy formats

Copy format	Copied output	Typical use
Emoji text	👍🏽	Messages and documents
Unicode code points	U+1F44D U+1F3FD	Inspecting the base and modifier
HTML entities	👍🏽	HTML source that interprets character references

How Does Search Find Names, Keywords, and Shortcodes?

The collection contains 200 entries: 25 in each of Smileys, People, Animals, Food, Travel, Activities, Objects, and Symbols. Search uses their English names, supplied discovery keywords, and code point labels. For thumbs up, both approve and :thumbsup: work. Leading and trailing spaces, letter case, surrounding shortcode colons, and underscores are normalized. A phrase such as “face grinning” matches the same entries as “grinning face” because all search terms are checked without requiring that order.

Exact names and pasted emoji rank first, followed by exact aliases and then partial matches. Pasting a toned emoji can find its base entry because matching ignores skin modifiers and the emoji presentation selector. This finds the entry; it does not change Skin tone to match your pasted character. Category applies before searching, including Recent. If no results appear, choose All categories or try a simpler English term. Search is limited to supplied entries and keywords, rather than translating arbitrary descriptions.

How Can I Build an Emoji Sequence?

Enable Build a sequence instead of copying each pick before selecting emojis. Each selection appends one complete pick, including repeats. Your sequence shows the pick count and a selectable output field. Undo last removes the latest pick without separating its skin modifier; Clear sequence empties the draft. Copy sequence formats all picks using the current Copy format. Emoji text adds no spaces or other separators between picks.

Changing Skin tone affects subsequent selections without rewriting earlier picks, so one draft can mix tones. Switching sequence mode off hides the composer and resumes immediate copying; switching it back on restores the draft during the same page session. Reloading loses that unsaved draft. The composer concatenates entries rather than editing arbitrary text or automatically joining separate people into a family emoji. Use the online notepad to combine copied characters with surrounding prose.

Which Skin Tones and Copy Formats Are Supported?

Skin tone offers Default, Light, Medium-light, Medium, Medium-dark, and Dark. Modifiers apply only to the picker's supported set of people and hand entries, including waving hand, thumbs up, and victory hand. Eyes, mechanical arm, and other unsupported entries stay unchanged. For supported entries that contain a presentation selector, applying a tone removes that selector before appending the modifier. Selecting Default keeps the original entry.

Unicode code points outputs one uppercase label per code point, separated by spaces. HTML entities outputs hexadecimal numeric references without separators. The red heart ❤️ includes the presentation selector U+FE0F, so its code point output is U+2764 U+FE0F. Formatting preserves characters present in the selected text. HTML references pasted into an ordinary plain text field remain source text unless the destination interprets them; choose Emoji text when you want visible emoji in a message.

How Do I Save and Reuse Favorite Sequences?

Build a sequence and use Save sequence under Favorite sequences. The picker stores up to 50 unique strings locally in this browser. Saving an identical string again is disabled, and Remove deletes an individual favorite. A saved sequence must fit within 4,096 UTF-16 code units; that is a string-length limit, not a count of visible emoji. A longer draft is not added to favorites. Saving stores the emoji string rather than the formatted code point or HTML output.

Each favorite's Copy button always copies emoji text, even when Copy format is set to a technical representation. Favorites do not load back into the composer for editing. They persist across reloads when localStorage is available, without an account or server upload. Blocked storage leaves favorites available only in the current session, and the interface reports that limitation. Keep a separate copy of an important sequence before clearing browser site data.

What Should I Know About Rendering, Recent Picks, and Keyboard Use?

The grid renders characters with your device's fonts. Their appearance can vary across devices, and unsupported glyphs may display as boxes. This curated collection does not include every Unicode emoji. One visible emoji may contain several code points or UTF-16 code units, so the pick count is not a destination's character count. Check the destination's own limit or inspect accompanying text with the character counter. The text case converter handles capitalization in surrounding prose.

Recent holds up to 16 unique base entries in localStorage. A successful immediate copy or an addition to the composer remembers the entry; selecting it again moves it to the front. Tone variants share one history entry, and the current Skin tone setting controls their display in Recent. Clear recent removes this history independently of favorites. Tab enters the grid at one active button; arrow keys move between entries, while Home and End reach the first and last displayed entries. Enter or Space selects the focused button.

What If Clipboard Access Is Unavailable?

Clipboard writes can fail because of browser permissions or context. The picker then displays Manual copy output containing the requested text; focusing that field selects its contents for manual copying. Sequence output is also selectable. A success message appears only after the clipboard write resolves. Searches, tone changes, and output formatting run locally in the page. For more text tasks after pasting your result, browse the text tools category.