Bad news, kids, you simply cannot put an emoji in your TikTok username.
Read the FAQs at the end of this article for a really detailed look at why you can’t. To put it simply, though: emojis don’t translate into URLs, and since videos and profiles on TikTok (as well as on any social media app) rely on URLs to function, you are disallowed from including emojis in your username.
Thankfully, that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with emojis on TikTok. What you can do is include emojis in your display name. Thus, we’ll be showing you how to do that, instead.
Table of Contents
How to put an emoji in your display name on TikTok
- Open the TikTok app on your device and sign-in if prompted
- Tap the ‘Me’ or ‘Profile’ icon in the bottom-right of the screen
- Next, tap ‘Edit Profile’
- Now, tap ‘Name’
- Note: Don’t tap ‘Username’, because as we’ve discussed, you cannot put emojis in your TikTok username
- Input your new display name with whatever emojis you like (remember emojis usually count as several letters, depending on their size, and you do have a character limit here)
- Once happy with your new, emoji-decorated display name, hit ‘Save’ up top-right
And there you have it! Whilst TikTok, unfortunately, does not have the capacity to allow you to put emojis in your username, you can still put them in your display name to your heart’s content. To do so, simply follow the 6 easy steps above.
For any additional information or unanswered queries, see our FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it impossible to put emojis in my TikTok username?
Usernames on TikTok, like on Instagram and any number of other sites and applications, such as Twitter, Facebook, and so on, must be written using only a small set of characters. Those which are called ‘special characters’ (!?£$@ etc. and emojis) are typically not allowed in a username.
The same goes for TikTok and establishing your username there, and there’s a fairly simple reason. When you create your username, TikTok automatically creates a link or hyperlink associated with your account – this allows users to find you and allows you to share a link to your account wherever you like.
Furthermore, when you make a TikTok and share it, it is linked with a specific URL that includes your username. Simply put, there is no way for emojis to be translated into text which could be included in a URL, and thus, you cannot put an emoji in your TikTok username.
What you can do, is to put an emoji in your display name, and it’s doing this that we’ve helped you out within our step-by-step guides above.
Why would I want to put an emoji in my TikTok display name?
Emojis, as most younger people will tell you, are simply an extension of language. In fact, they’re arguably much more than just that. Emojis are an extension of language which goes beyond usual linguistic barriers. They are a universally understood pictographic language, only made possible by today’s globalized society and technological advancements.
Put in simpler terms, emojis convey meanings that most technologically literate people can understand, regardless of their spoken and written languages. Put in the simplest terms, if somebody in Korea uses a ‘pizza’ emoji, someone in Germany (who doesn’t speak a word of Korean) can still read it – they know it is a picture of a pizza and can mean ‘pizza’, ‘hungry’, ‘food’, ‘fast food’, etc.
Emojis also elevate content. They are bright and colorful and pop, jumping out of the screen at the reader. As such, it’s no wonder you might want to include an emoji in your TikTok username, since this would enhance the universal readability of your name, whilst also making your username stand out.
As no one can see your display name until they search for you or land on your homepage, many people want to be able to put emojis in their usernames, which anyone can see when they see a video of yours.
How often can I change my TikTok username?
You can change your username once every 30 days. You can change your display name as much and as often as you like.
