Eye emoji: ๐๏ธ vs ๐
๐ (eyes) is the one people use most. It glances to the side and means "I see that", "look at this" or "I'm watching the drama unfold". ๐๏ธ is a single eye, which feels stranger and more intense: it is used for mystery, spooky posts and the viral ๐๏ธ๐๐๏ธ face.
Other seeing symbols add nuance: ๐ซฃ peeks through fingers, ๐ง inspects with a monocle, ๐ is the see-no-evil monkey, and ๐โ๐จ๏ธ is an eye in a speech bubble, which is ๐๏ธ and ๐จ๏ธ joined into one emoji.
The Eye of Horus ๐ and the evil eye ๐งฟ
๐ is the wedjat, or Eye of Horus, Gardiner sign D10. In Egyptian myth, Horus lost an eye fighting the god Set and it was healed, so the sign stands for protection, healing and wholeness. ๐น (D4) is a plain eye, used to write the word "to do". Find more signs on the Egyptian symbols page.
๐งฟ is the nazar, the blue eye bead from Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean that is said to ward off the evil eye. For more lucky charms like ๐ชฌ and ๐, see good luck symbols. The all-seeing eye in a triangle has no character of its own; people combine ๐บ or โณ with ๐๏ธ instead.
Text eyes for kaomoji
Round text characters make great cartoon eyes. โ is called FISHEYE, โ is a math operator (circled dot), ส is a letter for a click sound in the phonetic alphabet, and โ is a circle with three quarters filled. Unlike ๐๏ธ, they keep your text color and never turn into emoji.
The famous เฒ _เฒ "look of disapproval" uses เฒ , a letter of the Kannada script from southern India. Mix these eyes into your own faces or browse the kaomoji and circle symbols pages for more.
How to type an eye symbol
Search for "eye" in your phone's emoji keyboard, press Win + . on Windows or Control + Command + Space on a Mac. Text eyes like โ and ส and the Eye of Horus are easiest to copy from this page.