Text faces from Japan, read upright rather than sideways: (＾▽＾) is a smile, (╥﹏╥) is crying. They are made from ordinary characters, so they work anywhere text does.

Why do some look different on my device?

Kaomoji use characters from many alphabets and symbol sets; each device draws them with its own fonts, so spacing and shapes can vary a little.

Can I use them anywhere?

Yes — in messages, posts, names, comments and documents. A few very long ones may be cut short where names have a length limit.

How is a kaomoji different from an emoji?

Emoji are single picture characters drawn by your device; kaomoji are built from several text characters, which gives them their hand-made look.

Why does the shrug lose its arm when I send it?

Apps that format messages with Markdown read the backslash in ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as an escape character and drop it, leaving ¯_(ツ)_/¯. In such an app type ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ instead: the extra backslashes are used up and the arm comes back.

How many kaomoji are there?

470, in 20 categories from Happy to Sparkles & decor. Searching in English is quicker than scrolling: a mood (happy, sad, sleepy), an animal (cat, bear, rabbit) or an action (dance, bow, flip) narrows the list to a few dozen.

Is anything sent anywhere?

No. Copying happens in your browser.

Kaomoji

Japanese text faces to copy — click one and paste it anywhere.

Click a kaomoji to copy it.

Happy

Love

Sad

Angry

Surprised

Shy

Sleepy

Hello & bye

Thanks & bowing

Cheer & dance

Cats

Dogs

Bears

Rabbits

Other animals

Table flip

Shrug

Music

Food & drink

Sparkles & decor

Nothing leaves your device

This tool runs entirely in your browser. What you type, play or record here stays on your device: nothing is uploaded or saved on a server.

Example

Example: a table flip, putting the table back, and a shrug that keeps its arm

A group chat about a deadline that moved again. You reply with a table flip, calm down and put the table back, then shrug. Three searches in English find all three without opening a single category.

Search “table flip”: 24 results, starting with ʕノ•ᴥ•ʔノ︵ ┻━┻ and (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻. Click (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻, “Copied” appears, and paste it.
Search “put back”: one result, ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ), the table set back on its legs.
Search “shrug”: 23 results, with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ second. In an app that formats text with Markdown the backslash may vanish and leave ¯_(ツ)_/¯; there, send ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯.
All three now sit at the top under Recently copied, up to 16, in this browser only.

Search	Results	First ones
table flip	24	ʕノ•ᴥ•ʔノ︵ ┻━┻ · (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ · (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
put back	1	┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)
shrug	23	┬──┬ ¯\_(ツ) · ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ · ¯\_(シ)_/¯
thank you	22	m(_ _)m · <(_ _)> · (シ_ _)シ
good night	24	(－_－) zzZ · (∪｡∪)｡｡｡zzz · (=_=)
bear	22	ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ · ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ · ʕ￫ᴥ￩ʔ
dance	49	ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ · ＼(＾o＾)／ · \(^o^)/

Three clicks, three kaomoji in the chat. The search reads tags and category names too, so “meh” and “whatever” find the same 22 kaomoji as the Shrug category, and “cat” finds all 24 cats.

How it works

Pick a category or search for a mood or animal.
Click a kaomoji to copy it.
Paste it into a message, post or name; recently copied ones stay at the top.

Frequently asked questions

What are kaomoji?: Text faces from Japan, read upright rather than sideways: (＾▽＾) is a smile, (╥﹏╥) is crying. They are made from ordinary characters, so they work anywhere text does.
Why do some look different on my device?: Kaomoji use characters from many alphabets and symbol sets; each device draws them with its own fonts, so spacing and shapes can vary a little.
Can I use them anywhere?: Yes — in messages, posts, names, comments and documents. A few very long ones may be cut short where names have a length limit.
How is a kaomoji different from an emoji?: Emoji are single picture characters drawn by your device; kaomoji are built from several text characters, which gives them their hand-made look.
Why does the shrug lose its arm when I send it?: Apps that format messages with Markdown read the backslash in ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as an escape character and drop it, leaving ¯_(ツ)_/¯. In such an app type ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ instead: the extra backslashes are used up and the arm comes back.
How many kaomoji are there?: 470, in 20 categories from Happy to Sparkles & decor. Searching in English is quicker than scrolling: a mood (happy, sad, sleepy), an animal (cat, bear, rabbit) or an action (dance, bow, flip) narrows the list to a few dozen.
Is anything sent anywhere?: No. Copying happens in your browser.