The Sparkles emoji (✨) is an

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

that has one large star surrounded by smaller stars. Originating from Japan to represent sparkles used in

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

and

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

, the sparkles are often used as emphasis in text by surrounding words or phrases with it. It is the third most-used emoji in the world on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

as of 2021, and since the early 2020s it has been used by major software companies to represent

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

Development

According to

Emojipedia Emojipedia is an emoji reference website which documents the meaning and common usage of emoji characters in the Unicode Standard. Most commonly described as an emoji encyclopedia or emoji dictionary, Emojipedia also publishes articles and prov ...

, the Sparkles emoji was first used by Japanese mobile operators

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

, Docomo and au in the late 1990s. The emoji was added to Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and Emoji 1.0 in 2015. On some platforms the Sparkles emoji has been multicoloured whilst on other platforms it has been one colour.

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

's Sparkles have changed from being multicoloured to being a single colour.

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

's version of the emoji previously had a night sky in the background.

Usage

Interpersonal communication

The Sparkles emoji was originally meant to represent the usage of sparkles in Japanese

and

, where the sparkles are used to represent beauty, happiness or awe. The emoji has several meanings and depends upon context. Starting in the late 2010s or around 2020, the emoji started being used to surround words or phrases to be used as emphasis, an example being "I would simply ✨pass away✨". It can also be used as sarcasm, irony or as a way to mock people. Without emoji this could be represented with

tilde The tilde (, also ) is a grapheme or with a number of uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish , which in turn came from the Latin , meaning 'title' or 'superscription'. Its primary use is as a diacritic (accent) in ...

s or

asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

s, for example, "~tildes~" or "~*asterisk plus tilde*~" or "~*~*true sparkle exuberance*~*~". The sparkles emoji can be used to represent stars in text, be used to represent cleanliness or can be used to mean "orgasm" whilst

sexting Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21s ...

. In September 2021 the Sparkles emoji overtook the Pleading Face (🥺) emoji to become the third most-used emoji in the world according to

, with approximately 1 per cent of all tweets containing the Sparkles emoji.

Artificial intelligence

In the early 2020s the Sparkles emoji started being used as an icon to represent

(AI). Companies who use the emoji this way include

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

OpenAI OpenAI, Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) organization founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. It aims to develop "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines ...

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

and

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Zoom'' (2006 film), starring Tim Allen * ''Zoom'' (2015 film), a Canada-Brazil film by Pedro Morelli * ''Zoom'' (2016 Kannada film), a Kannada film * ''Zoom'' (2016 Sinhala film), a Sr ...

. As of August 2024, seven of the top 10 software companies by market capitalisation use the Sparkles emojis with AI. OpenAI has different versions of the Sparkles for different versions of the models that

ChatGPT ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released on November 30, 2022. It uses large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o as well as other Multimodal learning, multimodal models to create human-like re ...

uses. One explanation is that Sparkles is being used by these companies as a way to market AI as "magic". Marketing technology as "magic" has been used before AI, particularly by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

. Another explanation given by designers and marketers choosing to use Sparkles to signify AI is simply that everyone else is doing it, making it familiar to users. Around 2024 some of these companies started removing two of the smaller stars from the emoji in their AI services and have kept the one large star, an example being Google's

Gemini Gemini most often refers to: * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Gemini (astrology), an astrological sign Gemini may also refer to: Science and technology Space * Gemini in Chinese astronomy, the Gemini constellat ...

chatbot. In early 2024 the

Nielsen Norman Group The Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) is an all-remote American research and design UX (user interface and user experience) firm. They offer training, consulting, research reports, and free articles and research findings to help experience designers ...

provided test subjects with the star in isolation and found that people did not associate the symbol with AI, but instead mostly with "optimisation" or "favourite or save an item".

References

External links

* {{Artificial intelligence navbox, state=collapsed Individual emoji Star symbols Artificial intelligence 1990s neologisms 2010s neologisms 2020s neologisms 2024 neologisms