What is Kaomoji? Japanese Text Emoticons Explained
Kaomoji (顔文字, literally "face characters") are Japanese text emoticons made by
combining regular characters, brackets, and symbols to form facial expressions.
Examples like (´▽`), (；ω；), and (≧▽≦)
use a mix of punctuation, Japanese kana, and Unicode symbols to express joy, sadness, love, and surprise.
Where a single emoji (😊, 😂) is one picture character,
a kaomoji is assembled from multiple text characters strung together.
Because it is plain text, a kaomoji works well in many text-based environments
— chat apps, social media, blog comments, profile bios, and plain-text fields
where emoji may not display correctly.
Western emoticons like :) and :( are read sideways,
but kaomoji face forward, making the expression immediately readable at a glance.
The horizontal space available for text characters also allows for more detailed and varied emotions
than a single emoji can convey.
Save the ones you like to Favorites so they're always a tap away.