Objects · Emoji 16.0

Shovel emojiShovel Emoji

🪏 is a shovel, sent for gardening, digging, hard physical work, or joking about “digging yourself into a hole” with a bad decision.

🪏 shows a simple spade used for digging soil, snow, or holes, a basic gardening and construction tool.

Download PNG / SVG
Unicode
U+1FA8F
Released
2024
Shortcode
:shovel:
Skin tones
No

Added in Emoji 16.0. On phones older than iOS 18.4 / Android 15 it arrives as an empty box — the character exists, the artwork does not.

U+1FA8FTwitter / X
Shovel emoji, Twitter / X design

01 — Meaning

What does the 🪏 Shovel emoji mean?

In plain english
🪏 is a shovel, sent for gardening, digging, hard physical work, or joking about “digging yourself into a hole” with a bad decision. 🪏 sits in nature emojis, where it is listed next to everything used the same way. It also turns up in weather emojis, object emojis and red emojis.
Where it comes from
🪏 shows a simple spade used for digging soil, snow, or holes, a basic gardening and construction tool. It’s used literally for yard work, planting, and shoveling snow, and figuratively when someone keeps making a bad situation worse — “stop digging” tells a friend to quit while they’re behind.
Also known as

One character, many names — these are the wordings people actually type, all 8 of them.

bury emojidig emojigarden emojihole emojiplant emojiscoop emojisnow emojispade emoji

02 — Platforms

Shovel emoji on iPhone, Android, WhatsApp and X

Same code on both ends, different drawing on each screen — here is the shovel as 5 vendors ship it.

Shovel emoji on Apple
AppleiPhone, iPad, macOS
Shovel emoji on Google
GoogleAndroid, Gmail, Chrome
Shovel emoji on Twitter / X
Twitter / XX, Discord, Twemoji apps
Shovel emoji on OpenMoji
OpenMojiOpen-source, design systems
Shovel emoji on JoyPixels
JoyPixelsSlack, Discord themes

See the whole set the way each system draws it — iPhone emojis, Android emojis, WhatsApp emojis and Discord emojis.

03 — Copy & codes

Shovel emoji copy and paste

Everything here is the same character in different notation — including the shortcode chat apps know it by, :shovel:.

All emoji copy and paste →

In your code

Different notation, one result: whichever escape you paste, what comes out is U+1FA8F.

04 — How to type

How to type the 🪏 Shovel emoji

Every system hides the emoji key somewhere else. Here is where, plus the raw codes for U+1FA8F when there is no key at all.

iPhone & iPad
Tap the smiley or globe key at the bottom-left of the keyboard, then search “shovel”. No emoji key? Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → Emoji.
Android
On Gboard tap the smiley key, or long-press the Enter or comma key. On Samsung Keyboard the emoji button sits behind the gear icon.
Windows & Mac
Windows: press Win + . for the emoji panel. Mac: Control + Command + Space. Then type “shovel”.
Slack & Discord
Type the shortcode :shovel: and it converts to 🪏 as you send. The full set is on the Discord emoji page.
Websites & code
In HTML use 🪏, in CSS \1FA8F, in JavaScript \u{1FA8F}.
No picker to hand? The online emoji keyboard works in any browser, and every character on the site is listed on emoji copy and paste.

05 — Download

Shovel emoji PNG and SVG

Grab the shovel as transparent PNG or SVG. Each system ships its own drawing, and the licence stays with the vendor, all 5 of them.

Emoji PNG library →
Download Shovel emoji, Apple style Apple PNG · 160px Download Shovel emoji, Google style Google PNG · 64px Download Shovel emoji, Twitter / X style Twitter / X PNG · 64px Download Shovel emoji, OpenMoji style OpenMoji SVG vector Download Shovel emoji, JoyPixels style JoyPixels PNG · 64px

06 — Combinations

Shovel emoji combinations

Ready-made combos built around shovel for bios, captions and comments. Tap to copy.

All combinations →
Cool shovel combos
Flex shovel combos
Aesthetic shovel combos
Cute shovel combos
Dark shovel combos
Party shovel combos
Love shovel combos
Mood shovel combos
Unhinged shovel combos
Soft shovel combos
Late night shovel combos
Summer shovel combos
Gaming shovel combos
Y2K shovel combos

Want two emojis fused into one sticker instead of set side by side? Emoji Kitchen does that with 🪏, and there are more ready-made pairs in emoji combinations and aesthetic emoji combos.

07 — Emoji Kitchen

Shovel Emoji Kitchen stickers

Mixed with other emojis by Google's Kitchen — 311 stickers exist for the shovel, and 12 of them are below. Tap any to open it full size.

Mix it yourself →
Shovel mixed with Face with Tears of Joy — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 😂 Shovel mixed with Rolling on the Floor Laughing — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 🤣 Shovel mixed with Thumbs Up — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 👍 Shovel mixed with Loudly Crying Face — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 😭 Shovel mixed with Face Blowing a Kiss — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 😘 Shovel mixed with Smiling Face with Hearts — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 🥰 Shovel mixed with Smiling Face with Heart-eyes — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 😍 Shovel mixed with Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 😊 Shovel mixed with Beaming Face with Smiling Eyes — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 😁 Shovel mixed with Two Hearts — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 💕 Shovel mixed with Pleading Face — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 🥺 Shovel mixed with Grinning Face with Sweat — Emoji Kitchen sticker 🪏 + 😅

08 — In conversation

What 🪏 means from a girl or a guy

The same character carries a different intent depending on the sender and the message before it.

From a girl
A girl sending 🪏 is usually talking about actual gardening, planting flowers, or clearing snow from the driveway — practical, hands-on work. It can also be a playful warning to a friend who’s making an awkward situation worse, like “girl, stop digging.”
From a guy
A guy sending 🪏 often means real physical labor — yard work, a construction project, or shoveling snow after a storm. It’s also blunt humor, telling a friend who keeps making excuses that they’re “digging their own grave” in an argument.
How to reply
If someone sends you 🪏, you could reply with: “time to get to work,” “stop digging lol,” or “need a hand with that?”
Used in a sentence

09 — Apps

What 🪏 means on TikTok, WhatsApp and Discord

Chat apps do not change U+1FA8F, they change what it looks like and what people take it to mean.

TikTok & Instagram
🪏 is a shovel, sent for gardening, digging, hard physical work, or joking about “digging yourself into a hole” with a bad decision. In comments and captions it is read the same way — the tone comes from what it sits next to.
WhatsApp
WhatsApp draws 🪏 with Apple-style artwork on every phone, so it looks identical for both sides. A message with only 🪏 in it is shown enlarged.
Discord & Slack
Both accept the shortcode :shovel:. Discord renders Twemoji, so 🪏 looks different there than on your phone.
Outlook & email
Outlook has no emoji picker on desktop — press Win + . or Control + Command + Space inside the message body, or paste 🪏 from the copy button above.

11 — History

Where the 🪏 Shovel emoji came from

It arrived with the 16.0 release of the standard, which dates the shovel to 2024.

AppleiOS
Shovel emoji, Apple, iOS 18.4
iOS 18.4
Shovel emoji, Apple, iOS 26
iOS 26
Twitter / XTwemoji
Shovel emoji, Twitter / X, Twemoji 16
Twemoji 16
Shovel emoji, Twitter / X, Twemoji 17
Twemoji 17

Same character every time — U+1FA8F 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.

2024
Added to the standard

Shovel was approved as U+1FA8F and shipped in Emoji 16.0 (2024). Phones usually get new artwork about a year after approval, in a system update.

Today
Drawn 5 different ways

Every vendor keeps its own artwork, so 🪏 is redrawn by Apple, Google, Twitter / X, OpenMoji, JoyPixels. The character you send never changes — only the picture does.

12 — FAQ

Shovel emoji — questions people actually ask

What does the 🪏 Shovel emoji mean?
🪏 is a shovel, sent for gardening, digging, hard physical work, or joking about “digging yourself into a hole” with a bad decision.
What does 🪏 mean from a girl?
A girl sending 🪏 is usually talking about actual gardening, planting flowers, or clearing snow from the driveway — practical, hands-on work. It can also be a playful warning to a friend who’s making an awkward situation worse, like “girl, stop digging.”
What does 🪏 mean from a guy?
A guy sending 🪏 often means real physical labor — yard work, a construction project, or shoveling snow after a storm. It’s also blunt humor, telling a friend who keeps making excuses that they’re “digging their own grave” in an argument.
How do you reply to the 🪏 emoji?
If someone sends you 🪏, you could reply with: “time to get to work,” “stop digging lol,” or “need a hand with that?”
What else is the 🪏 emoji called?
Shovel is the official Unicode name, but people search for it as “bury emoji”, “dig emoji”, “garden emoji”, “hole emoji”, “plant emoji”, “scoop emoji” and more. They all refer to the same character, U+1FA8F.
What is the Unicode code for 🪏?
The Shovel emoji is U+1FA8F, added in Emoji 16.0 (2024). In HTML you can write it as 🪏, and in CSS as \1FA8F.
How do I copy and paste the 🪏 emoji?
Tap the copy button at the top of this page — 🪏 goes straight to your clipboard and pastes into Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Discord or any text field. You can also copy its shortcode :shovel: for Slack and Discord.
Does 🪏 look the same on every phone?
No. Shovel is drawn separately by each vendor — Apple, Google, Twitter / X, OpenMoji and JoyPixels all ship their own artwork for U+1FA8F. The character you send is identical; only the picture changes.