You’ve used it. Honestly, everyone has. Whether you’re reacting to a photo of a golden retriever puppy or a plate of street tacos that looks like art, the "Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes" is the undisputed heavyweight champion of digital affection. But if you’re trying to figure out when did heart eyes come out, the answer isn’t just a single date on a calendar. It’s a messy, fascinating timeline that involves Japanese pagers, a group of engineers in California, and a global standards body that basically acts as the United Nations of text.
The short answer? Most people started seeing it on their iPhones around 2011, but its DNA goes back much further.
The Early Days: Before It Was an Emoji
Before we had the glossy, high-definition yellow face we know today, we had "emoticons." You remember those. The classic <3 or the more elaborate Japanese kaomoji like (灬♥ω♥灬). In the late 1990s, a man named Shigetaka Kurita created the first set of 176 emojis for the Japanese mobile carrier NTT DOCOMO. These were tiny, 12x12 pixel grids. They were primitive. They were blocky.
Interestingly, Kurita’s original set didn't actually have the specific "Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes" we recognize now. It had a heart symbol, sure, but the fusion of the face and the hearts was a later evolution. It was a gradual shift from "here is a face" and "here is a heart" to "let's put the hearts inside the eyes."
The concept of "heart eyes" as a visual trope actually predates digital tech by decades. Think back to old Looney Tunes or Tex Avery cartoons from the 1940s. When a character saw someone they loved, their eyes would literally pop out of their heads and turn into beating red hearts. That’s the visual language the emoji creators were tapping into. They didn't invent the feeling; they just gave us a 21st-century button for it.
2010: The Year Everything Changed
If you want the "official" technical birth certificate, the Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in October 2010.
Why does Unicode matter? Because before 2010, emojis were a Wild West. If you sent an emoji from a Japanese phone to a phone in the U.S., it might show up as a bunch of gibberish or empty boxes. The Unicode Consortium—which includes big players like Google, Apple, and Microsoft—decided to standardize the code. They gave the heart eyes emoji a specific "address" (U+1F60D).
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Once that happened, the gates opened.
But even though it was "born" in 2010, most of the world was still oblivious. We were still typing on Blackberries with physical keyboards or using early Androids that didn't have native emoji support. The real explosion happened a year later.
Apple and the Great Emoji Migration of 2011
In 2011, Apple released iOS 5. This was a turning point. Before this, you actually had to download sketchy third-party "emoji keyboard" apps to get those little faces on your iPhone. It was a hassle.
With iOS 5, Apple built the emoji keyboard directly into the operating system. Suddenly, millions of people had a tray of icons at their fingertips. This is when heart eyes come out for the general public. It went from a niche Japanese mobile feature to a global cultural phenomenon overnight. People started using it not just to show romantic love, but as a universal "I like this" button.
It's funny how it happened. We didn't get a manual. We just saw the face with the red hearts and instinctively knew what it meant.
Why Do We Love This Specific Icon So Much?
Psychologically, there's a reason this emoji hits different. In a world of text where tone is notoriously hard to read, the heart eyes emoji is a "tone setter." It’s loud. It’s enthusiastic. It removes ambiguity.
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If someone sends you a message saying "Nice car," you might wonder if they're being sarcastic. If they say "Nice car 😍," the ambiguity vanishes. We use it to bridge the gap between cold digital text and warm human emotion. According to data from Emojipedia and various social media tracking tools, the heart eyes emoji consistently ranks in the top ten most-used emojis globally, often hovering right behind the "Face with Tears of Joy" and the "Red Heart."
Variation Across Platforms
It’s also worth noting that "heart eyes" hasn't always looked the same. While the Unicode "meaning" is consistent, every company gets to design their own version.
- Google: Back in the day, Google’s version looked like a "blob." It was a yellow, gumdrop-shaped character with tiny hearts. People actually loved those blobs, and there was a bit of a minor internet mourning period when Google flattened them out to look more like standard circles in 2017.
- Samsung: Their early versions had a very distinct, almost 3D look with different shades of red in the hearts.
- Microsoft: They use a thick black outline around their emojis, making the heart eyes pop in a way that feels a bit more like a comic book.
Despite these design tweaks, the core identity remains. Two hearts. One smile. Pure adoration.
The Evolution: From Heart Eyes to Heart Face
As the years passed, the "heart eyes" family grew. In 2018, we got the "Smiling Face with Hearts" (the one with three hearts floating around the head). This was a subtle shift. While the original heart eyes emoji is about looking at something you love—it’s an outward-facing reaction—the face with floating hearts feels more like feeling loved. It's more internal.
Even with the new competition, the original hasn't lost its throne. It’s a staple of Instagram comments and TikTok captions. It has survived the shift from millennials to Gen Z, which is no small feat. Gen Z famously "killed" the laughing-crying emoji, calling it "cheugy" or basic, but the heart eyes have largely escaped the chopping block. It’s too useful to be cringe.
Navigating the Nuance: Is It Professional?
We’ve seen a massive shift in how we use emojis at work. Ten years ago, putting heart eyes in an email to your boss would have been a fast track to a meeting with HR. Today? It depends on the vibe.
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On platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams, the heart eyes emoji is a standard way to react to good news. "The client signed the contract!" gets a flurry of 😍 reactions. It’s shorthand for "This is great news and I’m genuinely excited." However, in a formal legal document or a medical report? Still a hard no. Nuance matters. The context of 2011 was "Oh look, a fun toy." The context of today is "This is a legitimate part of my vocabulary."
Looking Ahead: The Future of the Heart Eyes
We are moving toward more personalization. We already have Memojis where your own face can have heart eyes. We have animated versions that pulse. But the core "Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes" will likely stay exactly as it is. It’s an icon. Like the "No Smoking" sign or the "Exit" sign, it has reached a level of universal recognition where changing it would be counterproductive.
If you’re a brand or a creator, knowing the history of this emoji helps you understand the "vibe shift" of the internet. It was born from a need to communicate more than just letters. It was a bridge between Japanese tech culture and the rest of the world.
Real-World Action Steps for Emoji Mastery
If you want to use the heart eyes emoji effectively—and avoid looking like you're trying too hard—keep these "rules of the road" in mind.
- Check your platform: Remember that your heart eyes might look slightly different on a friend’s Android than they do on your iPhone. Usually, the sentiment carries over, but some older systems might still struggle with the newest variations.
- Don't overdo it: One or two is a reaction. Five or six is a scream. Unless you're actually screaming with joy, less is usually more.
- Match the energy: If someone sends you a professional update, a simple "thumbs up" or "check mark" might be safer. Save the heart eyes for the "look at my new baby" or "we just got pizza" moments.
- Stay updated: Emojis are updated every year. While the heart eyes are a classic, keeping an eye on the new Unicode releases (usually announced in the fall) keeps your digital slang from getting dusty.
The journey from a 12-pixel grid in Tokyo to a global icon in every pocket is a wild one. When did heart eyes come out? It came out when we finally realized that words aren't always enough to show how much we care. It's a small piece of code that does a lot of heavy lifting for the human heart.
The next time you tap that little yellow face, you’re not just sending a picture. You’re participating in a digital tradition that’s over a decade old and still going strong.
Next Steps for Your Digital Strategy
To stay ahead of communication trends, your best bet is to audit your brand's "voice" on social media. Look at your most successful posts from the last six months. Are you using emojis like the heart eyes to build a connection with your audience, or are you stuck in a strictly-text world? Most high-performing accounts use emojis to break up text and add a layer of personality that feels "human" rather than corporate. Start by testing the heart eyes emoji in your Instagram Stories or as a reaction to positive customer feedback. It’s a low-risk way to see if a more expressive tone resonates with your specific community.