Zero width joiner (ZWJ)
The zero width joiner (U+200D) is an invisible character that tells a font to merge the emoji on either side of it into one picture.
In more detail
On its own, ZWJ draws nothing. Placed between two emoji, it asks the renderer to look for a single glyph representing the pair. If the font has one, you see one combined image; if it does not, you see the separate emoji side by side. Both outcomes are correct behaviour.
This fallback is why a ZWJ sequence can look completely different across devices — an unsupported family sequence shows as several individual people rather than a box.
Examples
| Example | What it shows |
|---|---|
| 👨 + ZWJ + 💻 = 👨💻 | Man technologist |
| 🏳️ + ZWJ + 🌈 = 🏳️🌈 | Rainbow flag |
See it for yourself
The Unicode Inspector breaks any text into its code points, so you can watch this behave rather than take our word for it. Paste an example above into it and the structure is laid out step by step.
Source and review
Defined in UTS #51, Emoji ZWJ Sequences. The explanation on this page is written by SymbolTap Editorial; the normative wording is in the linked document.
Last reviewed 2026-07-31.