TikTok Has Almost 50 "Secret Emoji" That Aren't on Your Phone — Here's How to Use Them

If you've ever looked at TikTok's comments section, you may have noticed it's alive with colorful emoji that aren't on your phone. Whether you're an Android or an Apple user, it doesn't matter — TikTok has its own set of secret emoji, and you need to know a list of specific codes to use them. The emoji, which have been around since 2018, are becoming more popular on the app now, and they're surprisingly really easy to use.

To use TikTok's secret emoji, simply put a word like "scream," "smile," or "surprised" in between two square brackets in TikTok's comments section (i.e. [scream], [surprised], etc.). Hit the spacebar, and voila, your emoji will appear. Emojipedia has a full list of 46 TikTok emoji you can refer to if you don't feel like experimenting with different words, and if the coding part seems too complicated, just go ahead and copy and paste (we won't tell anyone). TikTok's secret emoji are a great move if you're trying to get your comment noticed on a video — their bold colors may even move you to the top!

While no feature on TikTok is necessarily a secret, there are other unknown tools that are helpful. From long-pressing videos and selecting "not interested" so TikTok shows you different content to hiding your likes so no one can see them, TikTok has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. Additionally, the app just launched a subtitle feature so every video can now have closed captioning. Try it out!