Why the Same Emoji Looks Different on iPhone and Galaxy
Emoji are characters, not pictures, and Apple, Samsung and Google each draw their own. Why emoji look different across devices and how to avoid mix-ups.
If you've ever sent a cute-looking emoji from an iPhone and a friend on a Galaxy asked, "Why does this look so creepy?", neither of you saw it wrong. The same emoji really is drawn differently depending on the device and the app.
This article explains why emoji look different from device to device, what has actually happened because of those differences, and how to check ahead of time how the emoji you sent will look on the other person's screen.
An emoji is a "character," not a "picture"
When you send an emoji, it feels like a photo file is being transmitted, but what actually travels is character information, exactly like a letter such as "A" or "B." For example, 😂 is a character with the number U+1F602, and the message carries only that number.
The device that receives the number looks it up in the emoji font installed on it, finds the picture that matches that number and draws it on screen. So the same number comes out as a picture drawn by Apple on an iPhone, by Samsung on a Galaxy and by Microsoft on a Windows PC.
It's the same principle as how the shape of the letters changes with the receiver's font settings even when you send the same sentence. With ordinary letters, though, even in a different font an "A" still reads as an "A," whereas an emoji is a picture, so a change in the expression or a single prop can make it read with a completely different feel.
Unicode decides only the name, and companies draw the picture
The body that decides the numbers and names of emoji is the Unicode Consortium, an international standards organization. Unicode sets only a name and a simple reference picture, like "this number is the face with tears of joy," and doesn't say exactly what expression and colors it should be drawn with.
The actual pictures are drawn by each company in its own style.
- Apple: The emoji on iPhone, iPad and Mac
- Samsung: The default emoji on Galaxy devices
- Google: Noto Emoji, the default emoji on Android
- Microsoft: The emoji on Windows, recently in the strongly three-dimensional Fluent design
- Twemoji, which started at Twitter (now X): A design used together by many web services
On top of that, some apps like WhatsApp and Facebook use their own emoji pictures, so even inside the same phone the shape can differ from app to app.
One more thing to know is the operating system version. Companies revise their pictures over time, so even the same Galaxy shows the old pictures if it hasn't been updated in a long while. On an old device that doesn't know a new emoji at all, an empty box or a question mark can appear instead of a picture.
Real incidents caused by design differences
🔫 The story of the pistol that became a water gun
The Unicode name for 🔫 is "pistol." At first most companies drew it like a real pistol. Then in 2016, Apple changed this emoji into a green toy water gun.
For a while after that, it happened that a toy water gun sent from an iPhone looked like a real pistol on other devices. A message sent as a joke could look like a threat on the other person's screen. Around 2018, major companies like Google, Samsung and Microsoft also switched to the water gun shape, so now it shows as a toy gun on most devices.
🍪 The Samsung design that looked like a cracker
🍪 is a cookie, as its name says. But the old Samsung design drew it like two square crackers, so the sender, who was picturing a chocolate chip cookie, and the receiver sometimes imagined different snacks. The current Samsung design has changed to be closer to a round cookie like other companies'.
😁 and 😬: mixing up the teeth-showing faces
The teeth-showing faces are the emoji whose emotion looks most different from device to device. In 2016, researchers at the University of Minnesota in the US published a study showing that the feelings people get from the same emoji differ greatly by platform, and a prime example was 😁 (beaming face with smiling eyes). The Apple design at the time looked like clenched teeth, so some people took it not as joy but as a grimace or discomfort.
Conversely, 😬 (grimacing face) originally means "awkward" or "oops," but its teeth-showing shape is similar, so many people mistake it for a broad smile and use it that way. Attach 😬 to good news and the other person might read it as "is something wrong?"
🍔 The cheese placement debate
Google's old 🍔 design had the cheese under the meat patty. It seems minor, but it became quite a topic online, and Google later changed the design to put the cheese on top of the patty. It's an example of how many people care about the design of even a single emoji.
Google's "blob" faces
Up through Android 7, Google's face emoji weren't round faces but soft, droplet-like blobs. Plenty of fans found them cute, but there was also criticism that they looked so different from other companies' round faces that their expressions read differently, and Google changed to today's round faces from Android 8.0 in 2017.
Comparing designs on this site
If you're curious how the emoji you sent will look on the other person's screen, check the "designs" section on an emoji's detail page on EmojiCanvas.
Each emoji page shows three designs side by side.
- Noto: Google's design, in the same family as the default Android emoji.
- Twemoji: The flat design that started at Twitter (now X).
- Fluent: The three-dimensional design made by Microsoft.
We don't show Apple and Samsung designs as images on this site. Even so, comparing just the three designs gives you a feel for how differently the same emoji can be drawn. If the expression looks ambiguous in even one of the three, it's safer to assume it could be read differently on the other person's device too.
The emoji shown big at the top is drawn the way your own device draws it (newer emoji from Emoji 16.0 on are shown as Noto images), so comparing it with the three designs below lets you see at a glance the difference between your device and others.
Tips for avoiding misunderstandings from device differences
You can't prevent design differences themselves, but you can cut the chances of misunderstanding quite a bit.
- Pick emoji with a clear meaning over ones with a subtle expression. Emoji like 😊 😂 😢 🎉, whose feeling looks similar in any design, are the safe choice.
- Write the important feeling in a sentence first, and attach the emoji only to add mood. With "Congrats! 🎉," the meaning doesn't wobble even if the emoji looks a little different.
- Emoji like 😬 🤗 😁, whose feel changes easily from device to device, are best avoided in work messages or with someone you're talking to for the first time. 🤗 is a "hugging face," but depending on the design it can look like a "ta-da!" with two hands waving.
- A recently added emoji can show up as a box if the other person's device is old. If it's something you must get across, using an older, basic emoji is the safe choice.
- If the other person says, "your emoji looks weird," the fastest fix is to take a screenshot of your screen and show them.
Summary: an emoji is completed on the receiver's screen
It looks as if the sender picks the picture, but in reality only the number is sent, and the receiver's device draws the picture. That's why the same emoji has a slightly different face on iPhone and Galaxy, and on Windows and the web.
Most of the differences are minor, but in some cases like 🔫 or 😁 even the meaning can change. If there's an emoji you're curious about, compare the three designs on its detail page, and if the expression looks ambiguous, adding a sentence is enough to avoid most misunderstandings.
- 😊A safe smile that looks similar on any device
- 😂A laugh whose meaning doesn't wobble even when the design differs
- 🎉A congratulation with little room for misunderstanding
Last checked 2026-10-21