Shrug Text ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Copy and Paste – Shrug Emoticons and Kaomoji
Copy the classic shrug in one click, or grab a kaomoji variation for every mood.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One-click shrug variations
Tap any shrug to copy it instantly — the button turns green to confirm.
What Does ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Mean?
The shrug text emoticon — affectionately called the “shruggie” — expresses cheerful indifference: I don’t know, I don’t mind, it is what it is, oh well. Unlike a plain “idk”, the shrug carries a wink of self-awareness; it says you have made peace with the chaos. It fits everything from “why did my code work this time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” to the eternal question of where to eat tonight.
Copy it once from the big button above, or tap any of the variations in the grid when the moment calls for a happier, angrier, or smugger shrug.
The Characters Inside the Shrug
Fitting for a text tools site, here is what the shruggie is actually made of. The face ツ is the Japanese katakana character “tsu” (U+30C4), whose strokes happen to form a perfect smiling face. The arms are macrons ¯ (U+00AF), a mark borrowed for its flat-arm look. The rest is ordinary punctuation: a backslash and parenthesis for the body, underscores, and a forward slash for the raised hand. Because every piece is standard Unicode, the shrug renders identically on virtually every device made this century.
Shrug and Kaomoji Variations
The grid above collects shrugs for different moods — the classic, the confused ¯\(°_o)/¯, the cheerful ╮(╯▽╰)╭, the resigned ┐(´～`；)┌, the Lenny-faced ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), the cute ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ, the table-flipper (╯°□°）╯, and the deadpan ಠ_ಠ. These are kaomoji, the Japanese style of emoticon you read without tilting your head. Tap any of them to copy it instantly.
How to Type the Shrug Emoticon on Any Device
iPhone and iPad
Set it once, use it forever: go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement, tap the plus button, paste ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as the phrase, and type “shrug” as the shortcut. From then on, typing “shrug” offers the full emoticon automatically.
Android
On Gboard, go to Settings → Dictionary → Personal dictionary and add the shrug with the shortcut “shrug”. Samsung Keyboard users find the same option under Text shortcuts in the keyboard settings.
Windows
There is no built-in shortcut, so most people keep the shruggie in their clipboard history (Win+V) after copying it from this page. Power users set up a permanent text expansion with Microsoft PowerToys or AutoHotkey.
Mac
Go to System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements, click the plus button, and map “shrug” to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The replacement syncs across your Apple devices via iCloud.
The Missing Arm Problem on Reddit and Discord
Paste the plain shruggie into Reddit or Discord and it often shows up missing an arm: ¯_(ツ)_/¯. That is Markdown eating your backslash — these platforms treat the backslash and underscore as formatting characters. The fix is escaping each special character with an extra backslash. Copy ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ instead, and it renders as the intact shrug after Markdown processes it.
Shrug Text vs the Shrug Emoji
Both shrug, but differently. The shrug emoji renders as each platform’s own artwork — it looks different on iPhone, Android, and Windows. The text shruggie renders identically everywhere, works in plain-text contexts where emoji feel out of place (code comments, terminal output, commit messages), and carries a distinctly drier, more ironic tone. Rule of thumb: the emoji for casual chats, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ when the indifference itself is the joke.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ mean?
It is the shrug emoticon — a text version of shrugging your shoulders. It communicates “I don’t know”, indifference, or good-humored acceptance that something is out of your hands.
How do I type the shrug emoticon with my keyboard?
You don’t type it — you set up a text replacement once (see the device guides above) or copy it from this page. The ツ character alone requires a Japanese keyboard, so replacement shortcuts are the practical route.
What is the face in the shrug emoticon?
ツ — the Japanese katakana character “tsu”. Its strokes happen to look like two eyes and a smile, which made it the perfect ready-made face for kaomoji artists.
Why does my shrug lose an arm on Reddit or Discord?
Markdown interprets the backslash as an escape character and swallows it. Copy the escaped version — ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ — and the arm survives.
How do I shrug in Slack?
Type /shrug before your message and Slack appends the shruggie automatically. It is the fastest shrug on any platform.
Does shrug text work on all devices?
Yes. Every character in the classic shruggie is standard Unicode with near-universal font support. A few of the fancier kaomoji faces use rarer characters that can show as boxes on very old systems.
The shruggie earned its place as the most recognized text emoticon in the world because it never renders wrong and always lands the joke. Copy it from the button above, set up a text replacement so you never have to hunt for it again, and deploy it whenever the only honest answer is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a Japanese-style text emoticon called a kaomoji that pictures a person shrugging their shoulders. The ツ in the center is a smiling face, the raised ¯ marks are the shoulders, and the \_/ shape forms the arms and body. People paste it into chats and comments to say I do not know, whatever, or not my problem in a light, visual way.
It was born in the early 2000s on Japanese textboards, most famously 2channel, where users built elaborate pictures out of plain text characters. The shrug combined the katakana ツ as a face with raised arms, and it spread as part of Japan's kaomoji culture. Western internet users discovered it in the late 2000s, and forums like Reddit turned it into a worldwide meme.
It usually means I do not know, I have no idea, or it is what it is. Depending on context, it can also signal indifference, mild resignation, or playful helplessness, like saying beats me with a smile. The tone is casual and slightly humorous rather than rude. Reading the surrounding conversation is the best way to tell which shade of meaning the sender intends.
ツ is the Japanese katakana character for the syllable tsu. In kaomoji it works as a face because its shape looks like a smiling mouth or squinting happy eyes. Japanese text emoticons are read upright without tilting your head, so ツ became a favorite mouth for cheerful faces and appears in hundreds of kaomoji far beyond the shrug.
Together they sketch the shrugging body. The two ¯ macron characters are the raised shoulders, lifted high in a shrug. The backslash and forward slash angle outward like arms, and the underscore between them forms the torso. Read as a whole, the shape mimics a person lifting both shoulders at once, the universal body language for uncertainty.
Kaomoji combines two Japanese words: kao, meaning face, and moji, meaning character or letter. The term covers the whole family of Japanese text emoticons, from simple faces like (^_^) to full scenes with bodies, animals, and actions. Unlike Western emoticons such as :-) that you read sideways, kaomoji are read upright, which lets artists build far more detailed little pictures.
Kaomoji are assembled from ordinary text characters, so they work anywhere plain text works and never depend on software updates. Emoji like the shrug face with raised shoulders are single Unicode symbols rendered as colorful pictures, and they can look different or vanish entirely on older devices. Kaomoji also invite more creativity, since anyone can invent new ones by combining characters.
Western users found it through anime forums and imageboards in the late 2000s, but it exploded in the early 2010s when Reddit users began pasting it into nearly every thread. Its fame grew so fast that typing it became a running joke, with people swapping tips for the tricky arm characters. By the mid-2010s it was a mainstream internet staple.
It captures a feeling plain words struggle with: cheerful uncertainty. Typing I do not know feels flat, but the little shrugging figure adds warmth and humor. It works across languages because it is a picture, it is instantly recognizable, and it defuses awkward moments, like admitting you have no answer, without sounding defensive or annoyed.
It shines in casual chats when you genuinely do not know something, when the answer barely matters, or when you want to laugh off a small mistake. It fits friendly banter, gaming lobbies, and social media replies. As a rule of thumb, if you would say beats me or lol who knows out loud, the shrug is a natural fit for the message.
Skip it in formal writing, job applications, serious apologies, and any conversation where someone truly needs an answer. Sending a shrug when a friend asks for help can read as dismissive, and in professional settings it looks flippant. If the topic involves bad news, deadlines, or money, type a proper sentence instead of hiding behind the little figure.
It can, depending on context and your relationship with the reader. Among friends it usually reads as playful, but sent to a coworker after a mistake, it can look like you are dodging responsibility with a smirk. The smiling ツ face softens it, yet tone is hard to judge in text. When in doubt, add a few sincere words so nobody mistakes your shrug for sarcasm.
The characters are identical, so the difference lives entirely in context. Paired with a sincere question, it reads as I honestly do not know. Paired with gossip or drama, it reads as not my problem. Adding words like no idea, sorry versus eh, whatever steers the reader toward the right meaning, since the little figure cannot do that work on its own.
Copying and pasting is the realistic option, because three of the characters are not on a standard US keyboard. The ¯ macron is Alt+0175 on the numpad, ツ needs the Japanese IME or Character Map, and the rest are normal keys. Most people keep the emoticon in a notes app or a text expander. Typing it from scratch every time is slow and error-prone.
Copy and paste beats manual typing, since ¯ and ツ are not on the standard keyboard. You can find ¯ in the Character Viewer, opened with Control+Command+Space, and ツ by enabling the Japanese input source and typing tsu. For daily use, create a text replacement in System Settings under Keyboard, so a shortcut like ;shrug expands into the full emoticon.
Save it once as a text replacement and never type it again. Open Settings, go to General, then Keyboard, then Text Replacement, tap the plus button, paste ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as the phrase, and assign a shortcut such as shrug. From then on, typing your shortcut in any app instantly expands into the complete emoticon.
Add it to Gboard's personal dictionary so a shortcut expands it anywhere. Open Gboard settings, tap Dictionary, then Personal dictionary, pick your language, tap the plus icon, and paste ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as the word with a shortcut like shrug. You can also simply copy it from a website and paste it into chats, since modern Android apps render every character correctly.
From left to right it is: macron ¯, backslash, underscore, open parenthesis, katakana ツ, close parenthesis, underscore, forward slash, macron ¯. On a US keyboard only the backslash, underscores, parentheses, and slash are directly available. The macrons and the ツ must come from character maps, Alt codes, or an IME, which is why almost nobody assembles the whole thing by hand.
Reddit formats comments with Markdown, where underscores mark italic text. Its parser reads the underscore sequences around the arms as formatting markers instead of art, so the arm characters get swallowed and you are left with a mangled figure. It is one of the most common shrug complaints online, and the same thing happens on every platform that renders Markdown the same way.
Add extra backslashes before the first underscore so Markdown treats the characters literally. Type ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯, with three backslashes before that underscore, and Reddit's parser will leave the arms alone. Many longtime users memorize this escaped version specifically for Reddit, since the plain copy-paste breaks there almost every single time.
Yes, Discord also uses Markdown-style formatting, so the underscores can trigger italics and wreck the arms. The same escaped version, ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯, usually survives intact. An even safer trick on Discord is to surround the emoticon with single backtick characters, which forces code formatting, a mode where Markdown rules do not apply at all.
Slack can mangle it too, since its message formatting treats underscores as italic markers in many contexts. Pasting the plain version sometimes survives and sometimes loses an arm, depending on the surrounding text. Your safest bets are the backslash-escaped version or wrapping it in backtick characters for code formatting, both of which tell Slack to leave the characters exactly as typed.
You get a version with a plain underscore arm instead of the angled backslash arm. The figure still reads as shrugging, but the left arm loses its diagonal slope and the emoticon looks slightly lopsided. More importantly, on Markdown platforms the unescaped underscores are even more likely to be eaten as italic markers, so always keep that backslash.
Yes, the official shrug emoji was added to Unicode in 2016. It shows a person with raised shoulders and, on most platforms, a puzzled expression. Unlike the kaomoji, it is a single character rendered as a colorful picture, so its exact look varies by phone and operating system, and it needs relatively modern software to display at all.
Pick based on your audience and platform. The kaomoji works everywhere plain text works, looks identical on every device, and carries a playful retro internet vibe. The emoji looks cleaner and more modern but can render inconsistently on older systems. Many people use the kaomoji for humor and the emoji for quick reactions; there is no wrong choice.
Fans have remixed it endlessly. Common variants swap the face, like a version with a creepy grin, or change the mouth, like the シ variant. Some add extra arms, sweat drops, or combine it with the table flip for dramatic effect. The core shrug pose stays recognizable, which is why the template supports so many creative riffs.
It is the same shrug pose with シ, the katakana shi, replacing ツ as the face. Visually the mouth looks a touch wider and flatter, giving the figure a slightly more deadpan or smug expression. Both versions mean the same thing and are used interchangeably, so the choice comes down to which little face you find funnier.
Plenty. People swap in all kinds of faces while keeping the raised ¯ arms, for example a version with a disapproving stare or one with a bewildered look. Because kaomoji are just text, anyone can invent a new face in seconds. The arms do the shrugging work, so the face is free to carry whatever emotion the moment needs.
They express opposite energies. The shrug ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ says I do not know or it cannot be helped, with calm, smiling resignation. The table flip shows a furious figure hurling a table, meaning pure frustration. People often pair them for comedy: flip the table first, then shrug at the mess you made.
Absolutely, WhatsApp handles it perfectly. Copy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ from any source, paste it into the message box, and send. WhatsApp does not apply Markdown-style formatting to underscores in normal messages, so the arms stay intact. It renders correctly on both the phone apps and WhatsApp Web, in chats, group names, and status text.
Yes, Instagram displays it correctly in bios, captions, comments, and direct messages. The characters are standard Unicode text, so nothing gets reformatted. One tip: Instagram bios have a 150-character limit, and the shrug uses 9 of them, so plan around that if your bio is already packed. In comments it is a popular way to react with cheerful cluelessness.
Yes, X renders the shrug exactly as typed in tweets, replies, bios, and display names. The platform does not reinterpret the underscores, so the arms survive intact. At 9 characters it is also economical with the character limit, which is one reason it became such a beloved reaction on Twitter in the first place.
Nearly identical, because it is plain text rather than an emoji image. Both systems draw ¯, backslash, underscore, and slash from standard fonts, and ツ from their Japanese font support, which every modern phone includes. Tiny differences in font styling can shift the spacing slightly, but the figure is always recognizable, unlike emoji that can look wildly different across platforms.
Yes, Facebook shows it correctly in posts, comments, Messenger, and even page names. Paste it in and the arms stay put, since Facebook does not treat the underscores as formatting. It is a common sight in comment threads, where people drop it as a quick reaction to absurd news or unanswerable questions.
It does, as long as both phones support the characters. The ¯ and ツ travel inside the message as Unicode text, just like any accented letter. Very old handsets with limited character sets might show boxes instead, but any smartphone from the last decade handles it fine. Note that Unicode characters can split a long SMS into multiple segments on some carriers.
Often yes, but it depends on the platform's rules. Many games and services allow Unicode characters like ¯ and ツ in display names, while others restrict names to basic letters and numbers. Even where allowed, the 9-character emoticon eats a big chunk of strict name limits. Check the specific service first, and consider using it in your bio or clan tag instead.
Open Settings, tap General, then Keyboard, then Text Replacement, and tap the plus sign. Paste ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ into the phrase field and type a memorable shortcut like shrug into the shortcut field, then save. Now whenever you type that shortcut in any app, iOS swaps in the full emoticon automatically.
In Gboard, open Settings, tap Dictionary, then Personal dictionary, and choose your language. Tap the plus button, paste ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ into the word field, and enter a shortcut such as shrug. Save it, and typing your shortcut in any app will suggest or auto-insert the complete shrug emoticon.
Yes, and macOS text replacement syncs with iPhone too. Open System Settings, go to Keyboard, then Text Replacements, and add a new entry with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as the phrase and a shortcut like ;shrug. It will expand in most native apps, including Messages, Notes, and Mail, saving you from ever hunting down the special characters again.
Not as a single entry. Pressing the Windows key plus period opens the emoji panel, which includes the shrug emoji but not the text kaomoji, since the picker lists Unicode emoji rather than multi-character art. For ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ on Windows, copy-paste or a text expander remains the practical route.
Rarely. In a relaxed team culture, a shrug in a casual internal chat can be fine, but email is a permanent, forwardable record where tone is easily misread. A shrug in reply to a manager's question can look evasive or unprofessional. If you would not shrug your shoulders in a meeting about the topic, do not put the emoticon in the email.
Avoid it. A customer asking for help wants answers, and a shrug reads as I do not care about your problem, even if you meant it lightly. Support conversations demand clarity and empathy in plain words. Save the kaomoji for chatting with friends, and give customers a real explanation or a clear next step instead.
Poorly. Most screen readers spell it out character by character, something like macron, backslash, underscore, which is confusing and tedious for blind users. If accessibility matters for your audience, avoid dropping the raw emoticon into important content, or add surrounding words that convey the meaning, so nobody is left decoding punctuation.
The shrugging gesture itself is widely recognized, and the kaomoji form originated in Japan, so it travels well across Asia. In regions with less exposure to internet meme culture, some readers may just see odd symbols, though the raised-arm shape is fairly intuitive. When writing for a global audience, pairing it with plain words removes all doubt.
It is tempting, but think twice. A shrug in a comment where you did not understand legacy code can amuse teammates today and confuse future maintainers, including yourself. Code comments should explain why something works the way it does. If you must, keep it in informal side projects, never in shared production codebases where clarity matters.
There is no single person; the shrug itself became the character. In the early 2010s, reaction images and comics featured the kaomoji as a smug little figure answering I dunno to every question. It starred in countless image macros and forum replies, cementing its role as the internet's mascot for cheerful cluelessness rather than any one creator's invention.
Generally yes. The emoticon is a simple arrangement of text characters with no single owner or copyright holder, and it has been used on shirts, mugs, and stickers by countless sellers for years. That said, this is not legal advice: if you build a whole brand around it, a quick check with a lawyer is wise, since trademark rules vary by country.
The emoticon depends on every character having similar width, so proportional fonts or apps that substitute fonts mid-string can squash it. Some platforms render the macron ¯ narrower than the other glyphs, tilting the balance. It usually still reads fine, but if perfect alignment matters, test it in the target app, since each font draws the pieces slightly differently.
Copy it from a plain-text source rather than a formatted page, then paste it directly where you need it. Rich-text editors and some websites silently convert the backslash or macron into lookalike characters. After pasting, glance at the result: you should see ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ with both arms angled correctly and no missing pieces before you hit send.
Start with the table flip for rage, its reverse for putting the table back, and (^_^) for a simple happy face. Animal lovers like the bear and cat faces built from similar tricks. Each follows the same idea: ordinary characters arranged into an upright picture you read without tilting your head, just like the shrug.