Emoji to Text

Convert emojis into their descriptive text meanings for better accessibility and clarity

Emoji Input

Translated Description

Describing emoji in words

Emoji can be lost in plain-text environments: older terminals, log files, CSV exports and some email systems display them as empty boxes. They can also be unclear to people using screen readers or who do not know what a symbol means. This tool swaps each emoji in your message for a short bracketed label, leaving the rest of your text untouched.

Translating a message

Enter or paste text into the Emoji Input box. The Paste button reads your clipboard, and Example fills in a sample sentence with a pizza, fire, heart and rocket.
Click Translate Emojis.
See the result under Translated Description. For instance, a fire emoji becomes [fire] followed by a space.
Press Copy Translation to copy it. Clear empties the input.

What the tool knows

It has a built-in dictionary of 18 common emoji, including the smiling face, thumbs up, sparkles, rocket, check mark, cross mark, rainbow, pizza, coffee, computer, mobile phone and star.
Any other emoji that is detected is replaced by the generic label [emoji], so you know something was there.
Text without emoji is kept as it is.

Good uses

Preparing social media copy for a plain-text newsletter or a legacy system.
Making an accessible transcript of a chat message for someone who cannot see the symbols.
Cleaning user comments before storing them in a database that does not handle emoji.
Learning what a few common emoji are called.

Accuracy limits

The dictionary is small, so most of the emoji set will appear as [emoji] rather than a name. Detection uses broad Unicode ranges, so characters that are not emoji, such as curly quotation marks, long dashes, arrows or Japanese kana, may also be replaced with [emoji]. Compound emoji built from several parts, such as skin-tone versions or family sequences, may be broken into several labels, and a red heart that carries an invisible variation selector can be reported generically instead of by name. Treat the output as a rough accessibility aid rather than an exact description, and review it before publishing. The translation happens in JavaScript inside your browser page.

Related Tools

Frequently Asked Questions

How many emoji can it name?

The built-in dictionary has 18 entries, such as fire, rocket, pizza, thumbs up and coffee. Other emoji are still detected but shown as the generic label [emoji] rather than a specific name.

Why did a normal character turn into [emoji]?

Emoji detection uses wide Unicode ranges to catch symbols. Some non-emoji characters in those ranges, including curly quotes, long dashes, arrows and Japanese kana, are matched too. Review the output and restore any such characters by hand.

Does it handle skin tones and combined emoji?

Not fully. Emoji made of multiple code points, such as skin-tone variants or family and flag sequences, may be split into several labels instead of one description. Simple single-symbol emoji work best.

Can I translate the text back into emoji?

No. This page only goes from emoji to bracketed words. The labels are simple descriptions, not standardised names, so you would need to replace them manually or with a separate tool.

Is there a download button?

No. After translating, use Copy Translation to copy the text to your clipboard and paste it wherever you need it. The Paste, Example and Clear buttons are available for the input side.