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yutils
Example

Query

smile / lol

Matching emoji

😀 😃 😄 😁 😆 😅 🤣 😂 🙂

Note

Every emoji whose keyword matches the query shows up in the grid. Click to copy instantly, and the emoji is added to Recent automatically.

Usage guide

Use cases

  • Drop emoji into messengers, social posts, and email bodies
  • Add a visual cue to code comments, commit messages, and doc headings
  • Search works in both English and Korean (e.g., 하트, smile)
  • Pin frequently used emoji to favorites — one-second reuse
  • Use it on platforms without a built-in emoji picker (web chats, CMS, etc.)

FAQ

Q.Will the emoji look the same on the recipient's side?
A.Unicode emoji render with each OS/browser's font. The shape may differ slightly, but the underlying character is identical — the recipient sees their own platform's version.
Q.Where are recents and favorites stored?
A.Only in your browser's localStorage (yutils-emoji-recent / yutils-emoji-fav). Nothing leaves your device, and they don't sync across devices.
Q.Can more emoji be added?
A.About 200 commonly used emoji are curated right now. If something you need is missing, let me know — adding more is straightforward.
Fun facts

  • Modern emoji originate from 176 12×12-pixel icons designed by Shigetaka Kurita at NTT DoCoMo in 1999 for the i-mode mobile service. 'Emoji' is Japanese 絵文字 (e = picture + moji = character) — not English 'emotion + icon', a common misconception.

    Wikipedia — Emoji history

  • Unicode formally encoded emoji starting with Unicode 6.0 in 2010. Before that, each Japanese carrier (NTT DoCoMo / KDDI / SoftBank) used its own code points — a compatibility nightmare. Apple's iOS 2.2 (2008) shipped a Japan-only emoji keyboard that triggered global adoption.

    Unicode — Emoji

  • ASCII emoticons like ':)', '^^', and ';_;' predate emoji by decades — Scott Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon proposed ':-)' on a bulletin board in 1982. Text emoticons survived the emoji era because they need nothing more than a keyboard.

    CMU — Original Smiley post

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