Front-Facing Baby Chick

Usually affection with a dose of cuteness. Sent alone as a reply, it works like an "aww". Next to "good morning" or "miss you" it softens the words, and after a child's or partner's name it acts as a pet name. Under a baby photo or in an Easter message it points to new life and spring. Read it with the words around it: the sender decides the shade.

The English slang "chick" for a woman, which many people find dismissive, does not come built into the emoji. A small bird reads as a small bird unless the sentence says otherwise.

Why does a chick go with Easter?

Because eggs and chicks both stand for new life. Easter is the Christian spring feast of the Resurrection, and in many European traditions the egg is its sign of new life; the chick is the life that comes out of it. So chicks appear on Easter cards, decorations and some painted eggs. There is no dedicated Easter emoji, so people assemble one from 🐥, 🐣, 🐰 and 🥚.

The chick reached emoji from Japanese mobile phones as a set of three: 🐣 breaking out of its egg, 🐤 the baby chick and 🐥 facing you. Their drawings differ from phone to phone.