# Emoji not showing properly on the category description area

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-not-showing-properly-on-the-category-description-area/23977
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [January 14, 2015, 9:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-not-showing-properly-on-the-category-description-area/23977 "2015-01-14T09:08:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mak23](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mak23/32/167363_2.png) [@mak23](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mak23)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2015, 9:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-not-showing-properly-on-the-category-description-area/23977/1 "2015-01-14T09:08:40Z")

</div>

I’ve added a category on my forum, a parent category, and on the description is ended with an emoji, a smiley face to be specific, but when user selects all category, the text description shows the emoji as [smile] rather than 😄

![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/2/2/224d177a8aa4e4b2c375b4b98ca4c558a222eab4.png)

when the category is accessed, the smiley face is shown properly.

![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/9/5/95f3d5fe8054bbc15b9a7fd072fc402311402c83.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-not-showing-properly-on-the-category-description-area/23977/2 "2015-01-15T01:28:08Z")

</div>

This is correct and as designed. You will see the same behavior on your user page in the post excerpts..

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![watchmanmonitor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/watchmanmonitor/32/430970_2.png) [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-not-showing-properly-on-the-category-description-area/23977/3 "2015-03-29T01:12:55Z")

</div>

This still looks odd, see the sample from the stock Lounge post’s Confetti ball:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/d/e/deed95f956013585e6e77882808843e7e4b52086.png)

It’s interesting that the `: :` are replaced with `[]` rather than having the emoji through

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![watchmanmonitor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/watchmanmonitor/32/430970_2.png) [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-not-showing-properly-on-the-category-description-area/23977/4 "2015-06-19T18:15:50Z")

</div>

I just ran into this again on our hosted forum, and thought it looked odd.

![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/9/d/9da3a4187a5411be21db1fc65b458b266a4e6959.png)

Is there a way to have emoji look muted, but still have the right shape?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![chapoi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/chapoi/32/537252_2.png) [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2025, 11:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-not-showing-properly-on-the-category-description-area/23977/5 "2025-12-04T11:33:28Z")

</div>


