How it works
This random emoji generator draws from 1,905 emoji taken straight from the Unicode data file, from ๐ฆฅ sloth to ๐ช accordion to ๐ซ melting face. Three are on the page when it opens, each with its official name underneath. Narrow the draw to smileys, animals, food, flags or five other groups, take away the ones you do not want, press again and copy any emoji with one tap.
Read the full guide
Draw three, keep what you like
Press Pick 3 new emoji for a fresh set. On a keyboard the space bar does the same. For a longer list, press Add another at its end; the ร on a row makes it shorter. Copy the list puts the emoji on your clipboard as real characters, each name on the line below. To keep one emoji, take the others away with the ร at the end of their rows: the next press fills the gaps and leaves what you kept. Nothing repeats until you have seen every emoji in the group you chose.
Why the same emoji looks different on another phone
An emoji is a character, like the letter A. Unicode decides its code and its name, and each phone or computer maker draws its own picture for it. This page prints the character and your device does the drawing, so a result here matches your keyboard exactly. Some emoji are several characters joined by an invisible link: the polar bear is a bear plus a snowflake, and a country flag is a pair of letter symbols. A device that does not know the combination shows the parts side by side.
What is in the list and what is left out
The list comes from emoji-test.txt, the file Unicode publishes for keyboard makers, in its version 18.0 dated 30 April 2026. We kept every fully qualified emoji and then removed three sets. The 2,040 skin-tone variants are out, because they would fill more than half of every draw with near-copies. The 17 emoji added in versions 17.0 and 18.0 are out until more phones can draw them. One rude hand gesture is out, because classes use this page.
- Play emoji story: draw three and tell a story that uses them in order as the beginning, the middle and the end. Take one away with ร and press again for a plot twist.
- As an icebreaker, press Add another until the list holds 5, project the list and ask everyone to choose the one emoji that sums up their week.
- For the feel of a random emoji wheel on a projector, let a student press the button and read out the first emoji.
- Choose Flags in the All emoji menu, cover the names with a sheet of paper and name the country before you look.
Questions and answers
How many emoji can it pick from?
There are 1,905: 169 smileys and emotion, 385 people and body, 159 animals and nature, 131 food and drink, 218 travel and places, 85 activities, 264 objects, 224 symbols and 270 flags. The nine groups are Unicode's own, and each is a choice in the All emoji menu. With All emoji showing, every emoji has the same chance.
Why does it work as a 3 random emoji generator when it opens?
Three fits the games people play with emoji: a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, a three-emoji film or song clue for friends to guess, or three emoji that a caption has to include.
Is there a random emoji wheel I can spin?
Not a spinning one. A wheel with 1,905 slices would be unreadable, and a wheel you fill in yourself only picks from what you typed. The first row of each press is the same single winner, and the page remembers what has come up, so thirty students can each get a different emoji.
Why do I see an empty box or two letters where an emoji should be?
Your device's font has no picture for that character. It happens most with recent emoji on an older phone, and with flags on some desktop computers, which show a two-letter country code. The name under each result tells you what it should be, and the number after it is the Unicode emoji version that added it, from 0.6 for the first big set of 2010 up to 16.0. The lower that number, the more devices can draw it.
Why are skin tones left out, and how do I get one?
Unicode's file lists five tones for most hands, people and jobs, which comes to 2,040 variants, more than the whole list on this page. A draw that included them would mostly show the same waving hand in different shades. To use a tone, find the result on your own emoji keyboard and hold your finger on it: the keyboard offers the tones there.