The social media emoji behind every button
Every app draws its own buttons, but the emoji that stand for them are the same everywhere. Red Heart is the like on Instagram, TikTok, X and Threads; Thumbs Up is the like on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, and the standard “seen, agreed” reaction in Slack, Discord and WhatsApp groups. Speech Balloon means comment, chat or DM, Speaking Head a hot take or a quote, and Thought Balloon a musing you post without expecting replies. Repeat Button is the repost or retweet, the share or forward arrow, a reply, an upload or “share to”.
The rest of the toolbar has an emoji too. Bookmark is save for later, Pushpin a pinned post or Pinterest, Round Pushpin a location tag, Label a tag or a price. Bell is the notification icon on YouTube, Instagram and X: “turn on post notifications” is written as and muting as . stands for follow or add, for a profile and for followers or members, for search, and for a DM in the inbox. All of these have been in Unicode since 6.0 (2010), which is why they work on every phone and in every app.
Hashtag, at sign and the link in bio
The hashtag is older than most apps that use it: Chris Messina suggested grouping Twitter posts with a # in a tweet on 23 August 2007, and Twitter began linking hashtags in 2009. In Unicode the character is still called Number Sign; the emoji version is that same # followed by a variation selector and a combining enclosing keycap, which is why it looks like a phone key. The fullwidth ＃ is the East Asian form and is handy when you want a hashtag-looking mark that platforms will not turn into a live tag.
The @ sign comes from email, where Ray Tomlinson picked it for the first networked message in 1971. Twitter users began writing @name to address each other, the site turned it into a link, and every network since has copied the convention: @ now means a handle, a mention or “tag someone”. Link is the emoji of “link in bio”, a phrase that exists because Instagram captions do not make web addresses clickable, so creators send readers to the one link on their profile with or and point at it with in the bio itself.
Verified ticks, blue circles and status dots
There is no verified-badge emoji. Twitter introduced its blue check in 2009 after an impostor account led to a lawsuit by baseball manager Tony La Russa, and Instagram, TikTok and Facebook followed with their own, but none of them is a Unicode character. People improvise: Check Mark Button (a white tick in a green box), Check Mark (a plain heavy tick that renders in black, grey or blue depending on the font), Check Box with Check, the text tick and the Wingdings-era . For the blue badge look, Blue Circle, blue diamonds and blue hearts are the usual stand-ins. Platforms treat a tick next to a display name as plain text, so it does not grant anything, and some will remove names that imitate a real badge.
The coloured dots are status indicators. Green Circle is online or available, idle or away, do not disturb, recording or live, offline: the same scheme Discord, Slack and Teams use. on its own is “live now” on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The squared buttons from the Japanese carrier sets are post labels: New for a drop or a release, for an update or a level-up, and for cool and free, for top or back to top, ℹ️ for info, for an adults-only account and for a private one. all mean refresh, reload or sync; is also the arrow people use for “retweet” when they want a circular one.
Emoji for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn posts
Each network has its stand-in emoji. Camera with Flash is Instagram (and a photo credit: “ @name”), a selfie, Reels or a photo dump. Play Button is YouTube and any video, a new upload, filming, going live. and are TikTok, whose logo is a musical note, and also the sound you chose. are a podcast, Thread a thread on X or the Threads app, and a poll, the old Twitter bird, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest and a bot. On Snapchat the next to a friend's name is a streak and the warning that it is about to expire.
Comment sections run on a short vocabulary: and for approval, for “I'm watching this” or “tea”, and for “this killed me”, for touched, for shocked, for applause (also written between words), for celebration, for thanks, for love to followers, for an unbothered reply, for respect, for self-mockery, for “queen” or “goat”. On LinkedIn and in brand posts the register is quieter: for a completed milestone, for a launch, for a goal, for a tip, for growth, for a win, for a giveaway, for shop now, with or as a bullet. In Discord and Slack most of these have shortcodes: :fire:, :eyes:, :100:, :bell:, :link:, :+1:.
Social media symbols: text icons for bios and display names
Text symbols are ordinary characters, so they take the colour of the font, never turn into a platform's own emoji picture, and sit neatly in a line of a bio or a display name. The usual set is for likes, for favourites and sparkle, for done or verified-ish, • and as separators between “she/her • NYC photographer”, to point at a link, around a quote and for “written by” or an edit. From the old Wingdings range there are also thumbs, chat bubbles, a bell and play buttons.
Where they work depends on the field. Instagram, TikTok and X usernames allow only letters, digits, periods and underscores, so no emoji or symbols go there; the display name and the bio accept both. Facebook names reject most symbols. Emoji in a caption are indexed by search on Instagram and TikTok, so a hashtag with a word after it helps discovery while a row of does not. On a computer, press Windows key . (period) or Control Command Space on a Mac to open the emoji picker; for text symbols like and the quickest way is to copy them from this page.
Symbols
161Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Like, comment, share and save
The buttons under every post, as emoji.
Hashtags, handles and bio lines
The # and @ in every form, and the separators and arrows bios are built from.
Verified ticks, status dots and badges
No verified emoji exists; these are the stand-ins, then the dots and labels apps use.
Reactions people leave in the comments
Hype first, then the faces, hands and hearts of a busy comment section.
Posting: photos, video, audio and announcements
What you post with, from the Instagram camera to the YouTube play button, then the marketing set.
How to use them
6 situationsClick to copySocial Media Emoji & Symbols combos
15Worth knowing
- Chris Messina proposed the hashtag in a tweet on 23 August 2007. Unicode still calls the character Number Sign, and the emoji is a plain # with a combining enclosing keycap drawn around it, the same trick that makes out of a 1.
- Twitter's verified badge dates from 2009, after an impostor account led to a lawsuit by baseball manager Tony La Russa. No social network has ever had its badge encoded as a character, so do the job in bios, and since 2022 the blue tick on X can simply be bought.
- Thread was added to Unicode in 2018 (Emoji 11.0) as a sewing emoji. Twitter users adopted it to mark a thread of posts, and in 2023 Meta named its text app Threads.
- Low Battery arrived in 2021 (Emoji 14.0) and almost immediately became the “social battery” emoji, the sign-off of a creator logging off for the day; Mobile Phone Off means the same thing more bluntly.
- Facebook's Like button went live in February 2009, but Thumbs Up was already an emoji on Japanese phones and joined Unicode in 6.0 (2010), the same release as Red Heart, Speech Balloon and Bell.
Questions people ask
8What emoji represents social media?
Mobile Phone is the general one, with Speech Balloon and Thumbs Up close behind. For a single network people use for Instagram, for YouTube, for TikTok, for Twitter, for Snapchat, for LinkedIn and for Pinterest.
How do I copy and paste social media emoji?
Tap any emoji on this page to copy it, then paste it into the caption, bio or comment. On a phone you can also search the emoji keyboard for “phone”, “bell” or “link”.
Is there a verified emoji?
No. The blue check is a platform badge, not a Unicode character. The closest emoji are Check Mark Button, Check Mark, Check Box with Check and Blue Circle; they are decoration only and some apps remove names that imitate a real badge.
What are the best emoji for an Instagram bio?
Short and specific: for your city, or for what you do, for your craft, for the link, and one mood emoji such as or . Text symbols • work in the bio and display name too; usernames accept only letters, digits, periods and underscores.
What does link in bio mean?
Instagram captions do not make web addresses clickable, so creators put one link on their profile and write “link in bio” with or to send readers there. The same phrase is now used on TikTok and Threads.
What emoji can I use on LinkedIn without looking unprofessional?
Use emoji as bullets and signposts, not as reactions: for milestones, for launches, for goals, for tips, for results, or to start a line, and as contact icons on a résumé. One per line is plenty.
What do the coloured circle emoji mean on social media?
They copy the status dots of chat apps: online, idle or away, do not disturb or live, offline. Blue Circle is mostly used to imitate a verified badge.
What is the social media emoji text version?
Text symbols that do the same job in any font: like, favourite, done, • separators, pointing at a link, for quotes, edit, thumbs and play. They are listed in the last group on this page.
