Stories

Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

What Are ZWJ Sequences? How Emoji Combine

Learn how Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ) sequences combine multiple emoji into one — from family emoji to professions to flags.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Unicode Normalization Forms: NFC, NFD, NFKC, NFKD Explained

Understand Unicode normalization forms NFC, NFD, NFKC, and NFKD — what they do, why they matter for emoji, and when to use each one.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Unicode Emoji Properties: Extended_Pictographic, Emoji_Presentation, and More

A developer's guide to Unicode emoji properties: what Extended_Pictographic, Emoji_Presentation, Emoji_Modifier, and Emoji_Component mean in practice.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Text vs Emoji Presentation Selectors: VS15 (U+FE0E) and VS16 (U+FE0F)

How Unicode variation selectors VS15 and VS16 control text vs emoji presentation — with code examples for detection and normalization.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Implementing Skin Tone Modifiers Programmatically

How to implement emoji skin tone modifiers programmatically: Fitzpatrick scale code points, modifier base detection, multi-person sequences, and UI patterns.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Why string.length Lies: Grapheme Clusters and Emoji Length

Why string.length fails for emoji, what grapheme clusters are, and how to correctly count characters in JavaScript, Python, and more.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Emoji Version Detection and Graceful Degradation

How to detect which emoji version a platform supports, check for specific emoji availability, and implement graceful degradation for unsupported emoji.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Emoji String Length Gotchas: Surrogate Pairs, Grapheme Clusters, and Byte Counts

Why emoji cause surprising string length results in Python, JavaScript, and Go — surrogate pairs, grapheme clusters, and how to count correctly.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Emoji Security: Homoglyphs, Spoofing, Invisible Characters, and Filtering

Security risks from emoji in user input: homoglyph spoofing, invisible Unicode characters, emoji in SQL/code injection, and how to filter and sanitize safely.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Implementing Emoji Search: CLDR Annotations, Tokenization, and Fuzzy Matching

Build a high-quality emoji search using Unicode CLDR annotations, keyword tokenization, inverted indexes, and fuzzy matching algorithms.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

How Emoji Rendering Works Across Platforms: Font Stacks and Fallbacks

Understand how operating systems render emoji differently, how font stacks work, and how to handle fallbacks in web and native applications.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Emoji Regex Patterns: Matching Emojis in JavaScript and Python

Learn how to write reliable regex patterns to match emojis in JavaScript and Python, including ZWJ sequences, skin tones, and flags.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Emojis in URLs and Domain Names: Punycode, IDN, and Percent-Encoding

How emojis work in URLs and domain names: Punycode encoding, IDN (Internationalized Domain Names), percent-encoding in paths and query strings.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Handling Emojis in JSON and REST APIs

How to correctly handle emoji in JSON serialization, REST API design, database storage, and HTTP headers — including surrogate pair pitfalls.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Storing Emojis in Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite

How to correctly store emoji in MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite databases. Covers utf8mb4, collations, column sizing, and common pitfalls.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

How Emoji Fonts Work: COLR, CBDT, sbix, and SVG Font Tables

A technical deep-dive into emoji font formats: COLR/CPAL vector layering, CBDT/CBLC bitmap embedding, sbix Apple bitmaps, and SVG-in-OpenType.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Emoji Encoding Guide: UTF-8, UTF-16 & Surrogate Pairs

A developer's guide to emoji encoding — how UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32 represent emoji, and common pitfalls with surrogate pairs.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Emoji Detection in Text Strings: Algorithms and Libraries

Learn how to detect emojis in text strings using Unicode ranges, regex patterns, and libraries across Python, JavaScript, and Go.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Emoji Accessibility Guide: Screen Readers, Alt Text, and ARIA

Make emoji accessible to screen reader users with proper alt text, ARIA labels, Unicode descriptions, and best practices for inclusive emoji usage.

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Technical & Developer Feb 22, 2026

Building an Emoji Picker Component from Scratch

Step-by-step guide to building an emoji picker component: data sourcing, categorization, search, skin tones, keyboard navigation, and performance.