What Is the EmojiEmoji
A Japanese word (絵文字) meaning 'picture character' — small graphical symbols used in digital communication to express ideas, emotions, and objects. Keyboard Tool?
The EmojiFYI Emoji Keyboard is a browser-based emoji picker that gives you instant access to all 3,900+ UnicodeUnicode
Universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique number to every character across all writing systems and symbol sets, including emoji. emojis without leaving your tab. Whether you need a quick 😂 for a tweet or a specific 🧬 for a science post, the keyboard lets you find and copy any emoji in seconds.
Unlike the built-in emoji pickers on Windows and macOS, the EmojiFYI keyboard works in any browser, on any device, and requires no installation. It also provides richer search and filtering than system-level pickers.
Finding Emojis by Search
The fastest way to find an emoji is to type in the search bar at the top of the keyboard.
Search works by matching against: - English name — searching "fire" returns 🔥 Fire, 🚒 Fire Engine, 👨🚒 Firefighter, and related entries - Keywords — searching "love" surfaces ❤️, 💌, 😍, 💕, and many others - Unicode category — searching "hand" returns 👋, 🤚, 🖐️, ✋, and all hand-gesture emojis
Type at least two characters and results appear instantly as you type. There is no need to press Enter.
Tips for Better Search Results
- Use broad terms first. Searching "smile" returns more options than searching "grinning face".
- Try descriptive words. If you cannot remember an emoji's official name, describe what it looks like: "crying laughing", "thumbs", "red heart".
- Search by object or concept: "coffee", "moon", "flag", "cat".
Browsing by Category
If you prefer to explore rather than search, click any category tab along the top of the keyboard:
| Category | Sample Emojis |
|---|---|
| Smileys & People | 😀 🥹 😎 🧑 |
| Animals & Nature | 🐶 🌸 🦋 🌊 |
| Food & Drink | 🍕 🧋 🥑 🍣 |
| Activities | ⚽ 🎮 🎸 🏄 |
| Travel & Places | ✈️ 🗼 🌍 🏕️ |
| Objects | 💡 📱 🔑 🎁 |
| Symbols | ❤️ ♻️ ✅ 🔱 |
| Flags | 🇺🇸 🇯🇵 🇰🇷 🏳️🌈 |
Clicking a category instantly filters the grid to show only emojis in that group.
Copying an Emoji
Copying is simple: click any emoji in the grid. The emoji is immediately copied to your clipboard. A small confirmation message appears briefly to confirm the copy was successful.
You can then paste it anywhere — a text field, a design tool, a code editor, or a messaging app — using the standard paste shortcut (Ctrl+V on Windows/Linux, Cmd+V on macOS).
Copying on Mobile
On mobile browsers, tapping an emoji copies it to your clipboard in the same way. After tapping, switch to the app you want to paste into and use your device's paste option from the text cursor menu.
Skin Tone Modifiers
For people and hand emojis that support skin tone variations, the keyboard shows a small indicator. Long-pressing (or hovering and clicking the dropdown arrow) opens a skin tone picker with the six standard options:
- 🏻 Light skin tone
- 🏼 Medium-light skin tone
- 🏽 Medium skin tone
- 🏾 Medium-dark skin tone
- 🏿 Dark skin tone
- (Default yellow / no modifier)
Select a skin tone and the modified emoji is copied to your clipboard.
Recently Used Emojis
The keyboard remembers the last emojis you copied in the current session and displays them in a "Recent" section at the top of the grid. This is useful when you need to reuse the same emoji multiple times across different places without searching each time.
Using the Keyboard Alongside Other Tools
The Emoji Keyboard pairs well with other EmojiFYI tools:
- After finding an emoji you like, visit its detail page to see how it renders on Apple, Google, Samsung, and other platforms using the Compare tool.
- Paste a ZWJZero Width Joiner (ZWJ)
An invisible Unicode character (U+200D) used to join multiple emoji into a single composite emoji, such as combining people and objects into profession emoji. sequence (like 👨👩👦) into the Sequence Analyzer to break it down into its component parts. - Use the Text to Emoji Converter if you want to transform an entire sentence into emoji representations.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The emoji keyboard supports the following keyboard interactions for faster use:
- Type to search — start typing anywhere to focus the search bar automatically
- Arrow keys — navigate between emojis in the grid once the grid is focused
- Enter — copy the currently highlighted emoji
- Escape — clear the search and return to the full category view
Why Use This Instead of Your System Keyboard?
The EmojiFYI Emoji Keyboard has several advantages over the built-in OS emoji pickers:
- Universal access — works on any OS without a keyboard shortcut that differs per platform
- Better search — matches on keywords and descriptions, not just names
- No lag — instant filtering with no animation delays
- Detail links — each emoji links to its full reference page with encoding data
- No installation — open emojifyi.com/tools/keyboard/ and start copying
For anyone who works with emojis frequently — content creators, customer support teams, developers testing UI — the EmojiFYI Emoji Keyboard is the fastest way to get the emoji you need, right when you need it.