Despite the nickname “koala bear,” it’s actually a marsupial and a quintessential symbol of Down Under—cue drop bear jokes, eucalyptus-leaf memes, and sunny travel posts from Sydney to the Outback. During Australian bushfire seasons, you’ll spot it alongside wildlife rescue info and donation links, where it conveys empathy with a gentle, hopeful tone. Gamers and streamers use it for wholesome hype or to cool down the timeline after spicy takes. Send it after midnight and it usually reads as “I’m dozing off on your shoulder—send blankets.”
As an emoji, it’s a front-facing gray koala head with big, fluffy round ears, dot eyes, and a glossy black oval nose. On Apple/iOS it’s softly shaded, toy-like, and mouthless, with pale fur inside the ears that practically yells plushie IRL. It’s a pocket-sized dose of nap-time wholesomeness, radiating cuddly, sleepy, gentle energy—perfect for “need a nap,” “need a hug,” or “soft mood” moments.
People use it as shorthand for Australia or as a stealth-flirt meaning “I wanna cuddle,” sometimes ironically after accomplishing absolutely nothing all day. It also reads as “clingy but adorable,” since koalas literally cling to trees (and, metaphorically, to your hoodie). In internet slang it carries uwu/soft boi–soft girl/cozy-core vibes, great for self-care posts and low-drama replies. In group chats, it can soften bad news or add a playful “I’m baby” tone without going full meltdown emoji.
Definition
Actually not a bear the animal's name specifically means 'ash' colored.
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
This emoji was part of the proprietary / non-standardized emoji set first introduced by Japanese carriers like Softbank. These emojis became part of the Apple iPhone starting in iOS 2.2 as an unlockable feature on handsets sold in English speaking countries.
In iOS 5 / OSX 10.7, the underlying code that the Apple OS generates for this emoji was changed.
Emoji General Information
Twitter Emoji Popularity (Rank)
165 of 2393
Apple/iOS Picture
Google Android Picture
Google Hangouts Picture
Twitter.com Picture
LG Emoji Picture
Samsung Emoji Picture
Phantom Open Emoji Picture
ASCII Conversion
"Short Code" Name
:koala:
Keywords
Previous Names:
Gray Koala Bear
Unicode Category Information
Unicode Category
Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs
Unicode Range
1F300–1F5FF
Unicode Subcategory
Animal Symbols
Proposed Unicode Information & Notes
Unicode Category
Human/living Things
Unicode Subcategory
Animal Symbols
Names & Annotations
KOALA
Symbol Information
U+1F428 proposed
Proposal Identifier
e-1CD
Character Mapping/Crosswalk Notes
DoCoMo
[コアラ]
KDDI
#718 コアラ 「koara」 U+EB20 SJIS-F3E1 JIS-7A63
Softbank
#113 #old462 コアラ 「koara」 U+E527 SJIS-FBC7
Emoji Character Encoding Data
Emoji Code Version
iOS 5 - Current
UTF-8 Unicode Character(s)
🐨
UTF-8 Character Count
1
Character(s) In Input
AppleColorEmoji Font (available in OSX/iOS)
🐨
Decimal HTML Entity
🐨
Hexadecimal HTML Entity
🐨
Hex Code Point(s)
1f428
Formal Unicode Notation
U+1F428
Decimal Code Point(s)
128040
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)
0xF0 0x9F 0x90 0xA8
UTF-8 Hex Bytes
F0 9F 90 A8
UTF-8 Octal Bytes
360 237 220 250
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)
0xD83D 0xDC28
UTF-16 Hex
d83ddc28
UTF-16 Dec
55357 56360
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)
0x0001F428
UTF-32 Hex
01F428
UTF-32 Dec
128040
Python Src
u"\U0001F428"
PHP Src
"\xf0\x9f\x90\xa8"
C/C++/Java Src
"\uD83D\uDC28"
Emoji Character Encoding Data (equivalent or similiar)
