From Unicode to Tiktok: Complete Timeline of the Drool Emoji Meme
By James H. Sterling
The formal life of the drooling face emoji began in June 2016, when Unicode 9.0 officially cataloged the character under code point U+1F924. Platform vendors quickly drafted their interpretations. Apple introduced its glossy, tilted head with a single sky-blue drop pooling at the corner of a relaxed mouth. Google and Samsung followed with their own slightly stuporous expressions. The official documentation suggested benign applications: fatigue, napping, or craving delicious food.
Online communities ignored those guidelines almost immediately. By 2018, Twitter feeds and Instagram comment sections decoupled the icon from culinary cravings. Instead, it became the quintessential thirst tweet reaction. When users encountered attractive celebrities, fitness creators, or romanticized fictional characters, the symbol functioned as an exaggerated involuntary reflex. It signaled that someone was so intensely drawn to an image that their baseline motor functions had collapsed. It was messy, crude, and deeply human, qualities that made it irresistible to internet native demographics.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
