EmojiPeople mix up three kinds of small expression. They look similar but are different things.
Emoticons
Emoticons are faces made with ordinary keyboard characters, such as :) for a smile or :( for sad. They began in the early days of the internet and work anywhere you can type.
Emoji
Emoji are small pictures in the Unicode standard. The word comes from Japanese. Each has a code number, and each device draws its own picture. Emoji include faces, objects, animals, food and flags.
Kaomoji
Kaomoji are Japanese-style faces made from many characters and read upright, not sideways, for example (^_^). They use a wider set of symbols than simple emoticons.
| Kind | Example | Made of |
|---|---|---|
| Emoticon | :) | Punctuation marks |
| Emoji | 🙂 | One Unicode picture |
| Kaomoji | (^_^) | Several symbols |
Which to use
Emoji are understood by almost everyone on phones. Emoticons are fine in plain-text places. Kaomoji suit fans of Japanese culture and creative posts. Our site lists all the emoji with names.
Questions people ask
Do emoticons turn into emoji?
Some apps replace simple emoticons such as :) with an emoji automatically. You can usually turn that off in settings.