How to Use Emojis in Twitter?

Twitter allows to type short messages with a length of 144 characters. This is not sufficient for most cases and expressing opinions may need more words though it does not add much value to the content. On other hand, using emoji symbols for expression not only help to shorten your tweet but also make it more interesting. Check out emoji keyboard shortcuts for Facebook Messenger.

Emoji Picker for Twitter

Twitter allows you to use emoticons in your new tweets, replies as well as direct messages. This will help you to shorten the message length by using appropriate emoji symbols instead of lengthy text. You can click on the smiley icon when tweeting and select the symbol from Twitter emoji picker to insert in your tweets, replies and comments.

Twitter Emoji Picker Options

Facebook emoji picker has not many options to search and insert the symbols. Unlike Facebook, Twitter emoji picker offers multiple useful options.

• Hover over any emoji to see the preview in the text box.
• Use search box to filter relevant emojis.
• Scroll to navigate through different categories of symbols.
• Select skin tones for emojis, note that only some of the emojis have skin tones.

The hover preview will show the emoji with the default skin tone. However, you can click on the color icon showing against the emoji in the text box and choose different skin tone if available.

Using Windows and Mac Emoji Picker

Windows 10 and macOS offers default emoji picker for inserting special symbols on documents. If you are more comfortable, you can also the default operating system’s emoji keyboard on Twitter.

• Press “Win + ;” keys to open Windows 10 emoji picker and insert symbols.
• On Mac, press “Command + Control + Space” to open Character Viewer app to insert emojis.

Twemojis for Twitter

Twitter has lots of keyboard shortcuts for navigating and taking actions on individual tweets. Unfortunately, there are no keyboard shortcuts for inserting emojis in tweets. The only option we see is to copy twemoji symbols and paste on the new tweet or when replying to a tweet.

Twemoji is an open source emoji for Twitter supporting all Unicode emoji symbols.

• Twemoji supports the latest Unicode 12.0 specifications and symbol list.
• You can get these twemoji symbols from the Github page for free to use in any personal or commercial projects under license CC-BY 4.0.
• The package includes more than 3000 emojis for free and get updates whenever new Unicode symbols are added.
• It has huge list of skin tone emojis with variations.

Below is how twemoji symbols will look like on Twitter. You can refer our full copy paste version to copy and paste twemojis in Twitter.

Browser Extensions

If you struggle to pickup the correct emoji from the picker then the alternate option for desktop user is to use browser extensions. Especially, there are many emoji extensions available if you are using Google Chrome.

• Launch Google Chrome and open “chrome://apps” URL.
• Click on the “Web Store” to open Chrome Web Store.
• Search for “emoji” to filter emoji extensions.
• Find and install “Emoji Keyboard – Emojis For Chrome” extension.
• This will add a colorful heart icon right to your address bar.
• Click on the extension icon to insert the emoji on Twitter.
• You can view category wise symbols and see the name when hovering over the emoji.

Apps for Mobile Device

On iOS and Android mobiles, you need to use the built-in emoji keyboard. However, you can also find and install custom keyboard apps including emojis. Even Apple have official apps to include Smileys, Hearts and Hands sticker for sending animated emojis in default apps. You can go to Apple App Store or Google Play Store and install emoji keyboard apps that is convenient for your usage.

Caution When Using Emojis

One of the biggest problems in using the Twitter emoji picker is to choose the correct symbols. With 3000+ available emoji symbols, it is difficult understand the meaning and pickup the correct one to express your feeling. Unfortunately, there are no tooltip description available when you hover or touch the icon. Many users don’t understand the meaning of emoji symbols and insert wrong one causing confusion. On desktop, you can use Chrome extension to check the description as explained above. However, on mobiles ensure that you understand the meaning and the use correct symbols.