light bulb

Bombilla

= idea

Information

The light bulb emoji is the universal “aha!”—the cartoon idea popping to life above your head when a brainwave finally lands. People drop it to pitch solutions, share shower thoughts, or humblebrag a clever hack; it can also be spicy-sarcastic, like “brilliant… took you long enough 💡.” In DMs, it’s a gentle nudge for suggestions (“any ideas?”), and flirt mode flips it to “you light up my world” energy. Meme-wise, it pairs perfectly with big-brain jokes, plot-twist reveals, and those TikTok “life hack you didn’t know you needed” moments.
On Apple/iOS, the emoji looks like a classic incandescent bulb: warm golden-yellow glass with a soft inner glow, sitting upright on a ribbed silver screw base. The glass dome has a smooth gradient and a subtle highlight, instantly readable even at tiny sizes. It channels old-school Edison vibes (thanks, cartoons and classroom posters), even though modern life runs on LEDs—so it carries a hint of nostalgia with its “bright idea” look. You’ll see it in group chats during late-night brainstorms, on productivity threads, or ironically when someone states the obvious. TL;DR: it’s the go-to spark for inspiration, revelation, and the occasional gentle roast.

Definition

A light bulb which is on but not connected to anything.

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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.

1. 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.
2. 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)	139 of 2393
Apple/iOS Picture
Google Android Picture
Google Hangouts Picture
Twitter.com Picture
LG Emoji Picture
Samsung Emoji Picture
Phantom Open Emoji Picture	Not created yet
ASCII Conversion
"Short Code" Name	:bulb:
Keywords	Idea, Bulb, Light
Previous Names:	Electric Light Bulb Electric Light Blub

Unicode Category Information

Unicode Category	Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs
Unicode Range	1F300–1F5FF
Unicode Subcategory	Comic Style Symbols

Proposed Unicode Information & Notes

Unicode Category	Abstract Concepts
Unicode Subcategory	Comic Style Symbols
Names & Annotations	ELECTRIC LIGHT BULB = idea
Symbol Information	U+1F4A1 proposed
Proposal Identifier	e-B56

Character Mapping/Crosswalk Notes

DoCoMo	#151 'Good idea' ひらめき 「hirameki」 U+E6FB SJIS-F9A0 JIS-752F
KDDI	#77 電球 U+E476 SJIS-F64E JIS-752F
Softbank	#144 #old105 電球 U+E10F SJIS-F74F

Emoji Character Encoding Data

Emoji Code Version	iOS 4 Code
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)	e10f
Formal Unicode Notation	U+E10F
Decimal Code Point(s)	57615
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)	0xEE 0x84 0x8F
UTF-8 Hex Bytes	EE 84 8F
UTF-8 Octal Bytes	356 204 217
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)	0xE10F
UTF-16 Hex	e10f
UTF-16 Dec	57615
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)	0x0000E10F
UTF-32 Hex	E10F
UTF-32 Dec	57615
Python Src	u"\uE10F"
PHP Src	"\xee\x84\x8f"
C/C++/Java Src	"\uE10F"

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)	1f4a1
Formal Unicode Notation	U+1F4A1
Decimal Code Point(s)	128161
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)	0xF0 0x9F 0x92 0xA1
UTF-8 Hex Bytes	F0 9F 92 A1
UTF-8 Octal Bytes	360 237 222 241
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)	0xD83D 0xDCA1
UTF-16 Hex	d83ddca1
UTF-16 Dec	55357 56481
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)	0x0001F4A1
UTF-32 Hex	01F4A1
UTF-32 Dec	128161
Python Src	u"\U0001F4A1"
PHP Src	"\xf0\x9f\x92\xa1"
C/C++/Java Src	"\uD83D\uDCA1"

Emoji Character Encoding Data (equivalent or similiar)