Emoji Finder

Type a keyword for the feeling or concept you want, and find the matching emoji.

Emoji Finder speeds up a repetitive writing or editing step that comes up often when preparing a post. With Emoji Finder, you can get this done in seconds instead of doing it by hand. Everything runs in your browser — your file or text is never uploaded to a server.

Step-by-step

Type the feeling or object you're after into the Keyword field as a single word, such as happy, heart or coffee.
Click Run.
Pick the emoji you want from the results, copy it, and paste it into your message, post or document.
If nothing comes up, try a word with a similar meaning, for example crying instead of sad.

Example

You're writing a new menu announcement for a café's Instagram and want a few emoji to liven it up. Rather than scrolling through keyboard categories, search coffee, cake and new one after another, copy the best match each time, and drop it at the end of the matching sentence. On a desktop, where the system emoji picker is easy to forget, this saves real time.

If a search comes back empty, a broader word often helps. Try food instead of a specific dish, or animal instead of a particular species, to see what the list does include.

How to find and use emoji

The tool searches a built-in keyword list, and a partial match with a listed keyword is enough to return results. If your word is not in the list you get a "no matching emoji" notice, so try a synonym. Click the emoji to copy it. Emoji are a standard character code (Unicode), so they work wherever you paste them, though how they look changes by app and device.

Practical tips

Try different words that mean the same thing (for example laugh, funny, happy).
In a work email or formal text, use few emoji with an obvious meaning.
On social media a single emoji at the start or end of a headline is enough to draw attention.

Common mistakes

Assuming they look the same on every device; different systems draw them differently.
Forgetting that a recently added emoji may show as a box on older devices.
Using an emoji whose meaning you are unsure of; some carry different connotations locally.

Things to keep in mind

The same emoji is drawn differently on iPhone, Android, Windows and WhatsApp. Expect it to look a little different on the other person's screen.
Some emoji carry different meanings depending on culture and age group. In work messages, spell it out in words if you're unsure.
Very recently added emoji may show up as an empty box or a question mark on older phones.
Screen reader users hear each emoji's name read aloud. A long string of emoji in one sentence makes the text hard for them to follow.