Emoji Adoption by Platform: Apple vs Google vs Samsung vs Microsoft

The Same EmojiEmoji
A Japanese word (絵文字) meaning 'picture character' — small graphical symbols used in digital communication to express ideas, emotions, and objects., Drawn Differently

When you send a 😬 grimacing face to someone on a different device, you might be sending something that looks quite different on their screen. Every major platform designs its own emoji from scratch — following the same UnicodeUnicode
Universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique number to every character across all writing systems and symbol sets, including emoji. specification, but with completely different visual interpretations.

This creates one of the most interesting dynamics in digital communication: the meaning you intend to send may not be the meaning received, simply because the emoji designs diverge enough to read as different emotional signals.

Apple EmojiApple Emoji
Apple's proprietary emoji designs used across iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, known for their detailed, skeuomorphic style.: The Gold Standard of Rendering

Apple's emoji are widely considered the most visually refined. Rendered at high resolution with subtle gradients, shadows, and detailed textures, they set the aesthetic expectations that most users associate with emoji quality.

Design Philosophy

Apple's emoji lean toward:

• Photorealistic texture — food emoji look like photographs, objects have material depth
• Warm emotional range — face emoji err toward warmth and friendliness
• High detail — even at 72px, Apple emoji have shading and dimension
• Consistent art direction — a single coherent visual style across all 3,900+ characters

Adoption Patterns

iOS and macOS users show some of the highest rates of diverse emoji usage. The quality of Apple's renderings makes obscure emoji more visually rewarding to use, encouraging exploration beyond the top 100. The skin tone modifierSkin Tone Modifier
Five Unicode modifier characters based on the Fitzpatrick scale that change the skin color of human emoji (U+1F3FB to U+1F3FF). UI (long-press on supported emoji) is smoothly implemented, contributing to higher skin tone adoption rates on iOS.

Update Timeline

Apple typically ships new emoji as part of minor iOS updates (e.g., iOS 16.4, 17.2) within months of Unicode finalization. This rapid turnaround gives iOS users earlier access to new additions than most other platforms.

Google Emoji: From Blobs to Mainstream

Google's emoji history is fascinating. The platform originally used distinctive "blob" emoji — teardrop-shaped characters with flat, bright colors that were beloved by fans. Google retired the blobs in 2017 with Android 8.0 (Oreo), moving to more conventional round-faced emoji to align with industry standards.

Current Design Philosophy

Modern Google emoji (Noto Emoji) are:

• Flat with simple shading — less photorealistic than Apple, more graphic-design influenced
• High legibility — optimized for readability at small sizes
• Open source via Noto — Google's Noto Emoji project makes the designs freely available
• Consistent across surfaces — the same designs appear in Android, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Meet

Adoption Patterns

Android's large global user base (roughly 70%+ of smartphones worldwide) means Google's emoji render on the majority of devices. However, Android's fragmentation means many users are running older OS versions with older emoji designs — the update timeline for emoji on Android depends on both Google and device manufacturers.

The Blob Legacy

The blob emoji retain a dedicated fan base. Third-party applications and keyboard apps that restore blob support continue to be popular — a reminder that aesthetic distinctiveness can create genuine affection.

Samsung EmojiSamsung Emoji
Samsung's custom emoji designs shipped with Samsung Galaxy devices, historically known for dramatically different interpretations.: The Quirky Outlier

Samsung ships its own emoji designs on Galaxy devices, layered on top of Android. This creates a situation where Android users on Samsung devices see different emoji than Android users on Pixel devices — even though they're running the same underlying OS.

Design Philosophy

Samsung emoji are notably different:

• More exaggerated expressions — Samsung faces are often more stylized and cartoonish
• Unique character designs — the face shapes and proportions differ meaningfully from Apple and Google
• Historically slower updates — Samsung has sometimes lagged in implementing new Unicode emoji
• Galaxy-branded differentiation — the emoji are part of Samsung's broader device identity

The Communication Gap Problem

Samsung's distinct designs have historically caused the most dramatic cross-platform misreadings. The 😬 grimacing face on Samsung once appeared close enough to a smiling face that recipients sometimes read it as a positive reaction — the opposite of sender intent. Research by GroupLens found that emoji sentimentEmoji Sentiment
The emotional tone or meaning associated with emoji usage, studied through sentiment analysis of how people use emoji in communication. ratings differed most significantly between Apple and Samsung designs.

Recent Changes

Samsung has moved closer to industry standard designs in recent One UI versions, reducing but not eliminating the visual divergence that causes cross-platform confusion.

Microsoft Emoji: From Flat to Fluent to 3D

Microsoft's emoji have undergone the most dramatic visual transformation of any major platform, shifting through several distinct eras.

Design Evolution

The Fluent Emoji redesign was significant. Microsoft moved to fully 3D-rendered emoji that look almost like clay figures — a dramatic departure from any other platform. These emoji are also open source, available on GitHub.

Adoption Context

Microsoft emoji are primarily encountered in:

• Windows 11 — system emoji across the OS
• Microsoft Teams — the dominant enterprise messaging platform
• Outlook — email composition

The enterprise context shapes which emoji see heavy use. Professional-context emoji (👍, ✅, 🎉, 🔥, 💯) punch above their weight in Teams, while platforms like Twitter and Instagram see different distributions.

Cross-Platform Comparison: Where It Matters Most

The practical impact of platform differences depends on the communication channel:

Apps that deploy their own emoji set — WhatsApp, Twitter/X, Discord — sidestep the cross-platform problem by ensuring consistent rendering regardless of the underlying device.

Compare Emoji Designs Side by Side

Use our Emoji Compare tool to see exactly how the same emoji looks across Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft — and spot the differences that might be causing miscommunication in your conversations.