On iOS, it shows up as a glossy, 3D red‑and‑white capsule, tipped at a gentle angle with soft shading and a pinpoint highlight—like it just rolled out of a pharmacy ad. No face, no extras: a clean, clinical look with a candy‑shell gleam you can practically hear clacking in a bottle.
Online, it powers the “hard‑to‑swallow pills” truth‑bomb meme and occasionally nods to the Matrix’s red‑pill/blue‑pill moment—typically with a wry wink, not as real medical guidance. Whether it’s a wellness check‑in or a dramatic mic drop, the message lands the same: time to swallow something—medicine, vitamins, or the truth.
In chats, it’s your pocket pharmacy pass, a shiny stand‑in for medicine, vitamins, and self‑care, and sometimes the “I need a nap and some hydration” mood. People use it to say they’re sick, taking their meds, picking up a prescription, or doing the responsible‑adult thing and remembering magnesium before bed. It also pops up in thirsty wellness posts (“daily dose of serotonin”), plus jokes about hangovers, gym recovery, and the sneeze apocalypse. Flirt level chaotic: “you’re my antidote” is cheesy, but the emoji somehow sells it.
Definition
This emoji is supposed to mean: medicine. Cold medicine. A red and yellow capsule that looks like a pill someone might swallow.
Disqus Leave a comment!
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)
944 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
:pill:
Keywords
Unicode Category Information
Unicode Category
Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs
Unicode Range
1F300–1F5FF
Unicode Subcategory
Medical Symbols
Proposed Unicode Information & Notes
Unicode Category
Artifacts
Unicode Subcategory
Medical Symbols
Names & Annotations
PILL Temporary Notes: The carrier Emoji shows a capsule but the name is simply "medicine". So a more generic name is given. Also used for cold medicine.
Symbol Information
U+1F48A proposed
Proposal Identifier
e-50A
Character Mapping/Crosswalk Notes
DoCoMo
[薬]
KDDI
#403 風邪薬 U+EA9A SJIS-F36D JIS-794E
Softbank
#267 #old285 くすり 「kusuri」 U+E30F SJIS-F9AF
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)
1f48a
Formal Unicode Notation
U+1F48A
Decimal Code Point(s)
128138
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)
0xF0 0x9F 0x92 0x8A
UTF-8 Hex Bytes
F0 9F 92 8A
UTF-8 Octal Bytes
360 237 222 212
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)
0xD83D 0xDC8A
UTF-16 Hex
d83ddc8a
UTF-16 Dec
55357 56458
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)
0x0001F48A
UTF-32 Hex
01F48A
UTF-32 Dec
128138
Python Src
u"\U0001F48A"
PHP Src
"\xf0\x9f\x92\x8a"
C/C++/Java Src
"\uD83D\uDC8A"
Emoji Character Encoding Data (equivalent or similiar)
