People & Body · Emoji 11.0
🦸Superhero Emoji
Generally, 🦸 means someone is acting like a superhero. It’s a way to say “you’re awesome!”
The 🦸 emoji represents a superhero.
- Unicode
- U+1F9B8
- Released
- 2018
- Shortcode
- :superhero:
- Skin tones
- Yes
01 — Meaning
What does the 🦸 Superhero emoji mean?
People search for it under a lot of different names. All of these point at the same character.
02 — Platforms
Superhero emoji on iPhone, Android, WhatsApp and X
The character you send is always U+1F9B8. The picture is not: it is redrawn by each system, and the designs below number 9.
See the whole set the way each system draws it — iPhone emojis, Android emojis, WhatsApp emojis and Discord emojis.
03 — Skin tones
Superhero emoji skin tones
🦸 supports all five Fitzpatrick skin tone modifiers. Each one is a separate character sequence — tap any to copy it.
04 — Copy & codes
Superhero emoji copy and paste
Tap any value to copy it. The emoji itself works everywhere, the escapes are for your code, and the shortcode Slack and Discord expect is :superhero:.
All emoji copy and paste →In your code
Different notation, one result: whichever escape you paste, what comes out is U+1F9B8.
05 — How to type
How to type the 🦸 Superhero emoji
Where the emoji key lives on each system — and the codes for when there is no picker at all.
06 — Download
Superhero emoji PNG and SVG
Grab the superhero as transparent PNG or SVG. Each system ships its own drawing, and the licence stays with the vendor, all 9 of them.
Emoji PNG library →
Apple
Google
Twitter / X
Facebook
Microsoft
07 — Combinations
Superhero emoji combinations
Ready-made combos built around superhero for bios, captions and comments. Tap to copy.
All combinations →Want two emojis fused into one sticker instead of set side by side? Emoji Kitchen does that for every pair Google has drawn, and there are more ready-made pairs in emoji combinations and aesthetic emoji combos.
08 — In conversation
What 🦸 means from a girl or a guy
Same emoji, different intent depending on who sent it and what came before.
09 — Around the world
What 🦸 means in other countries
Neutral hero icon, it works as generic praise without pointing at gender or any one specific character.
common for “you saved this project,” a light and easy piece of workplace praise
a generic stand-in for when the specific character doesn’t actually matter much
broad “be a hero” messaging aimed at encouraging good behavior generally
Before you send it: Good default for praise when you don’t want to specify who, or what kind of hero, exactly.
10 — Apps
What 🦸 means on TikTok, WhatsApp and Discord
One code point, several readings — where the superhero lands changes how it is taken.
12 — Difference
🦸 vs 🦸♀️ — what is the difference?
Two emojis that get mixed up constantly. They are different characters with different names.
Unicode name: Superhero
Code: U+1F9B8 · added 2018
Shortcode: :superhero:
Generally, 🦸 means someone is acting like a superhero.
Unicode name: Woman Superhero
Code: U+1F9B8 U+200D U+2640 U+FE0F · added 2018
Shortcode: :female_superhero:
Generally, it means someone is being portrayed as a hero, or they embody heroic qualities.
13 — History
Where the 🦸 Superhero emoji came from
It arrived with the 11.0 release of the standard, which dates the superhero to 2018.
Same character every time — U+1F9B8 never changed. Only the drawing did, and only because each vendor redraws its own set. Someone on an older phone still sees the older picture.
Superhero was approved as U+1F9B8 and shipped in Emoji 11.0 (2018). Phones usually get new artwork about a year after approval, in a system update.
Every vendor keeps its own artwork, so 🦸 is redrawn by Apple, Google, Twitter / X, Facebook, OpenMoji, Samsung, Microsoft, WhatsApp, JoyPixels. The character you send never changes — only the picture does.
14 — FAQ