How to Send Star Wars Emoji in Text Messages & Chats

Why are there no official Star Wars emoji in the Unicode Standard? We've got the "Vulcan Salute" from Star Trek, so where's the force choke hand gesture?! While you may never see Star Wars officially invade your emoji keyboard, there are ways to send Star Wars emoji and stickers to your friends in your favorite chat app.

What Are Star Wars Emoji?

First, before you start spamming your conversations with Baby Yoda and Darth Vader, know that none of these are official emoji. Actual emoji that reside in your Android's or iOS device's keyboard are part of the Unicode Standard, which receives updates frequently. For instance, Apple pushed out more than 200 new emoji for iPhone in iOS 14.5, as well as 112 new characters in iOS 15.4 — emoji that some Android devices implemented before Apple.

However, just because the Star Wars emoji below aren't official emoji doesn't mean they aren't technically emoji. According to Unicode, emoji are simply "picture characters," and "emoji" literally translates to "picture" and "written character" from Japanese, where they originated. So any pictogram, ideogram, logogram, or whatever-gram can technically be an emoji.

How to Send Star Wars Emoji in Text Messages & Chats — *Image via Disney*

The one distinction is that you can use real emoji in line with text. In contrast, all other emoji act more like images and stickers, splitting off any text before and after it into separate messages. So all of the below emoji, even though Disney calls them emoji, are just stickers. But it's better than nothing.

When Are Star Wars Emoji Popular?

You'll tend to see these Star Wars emoji stickers in your texts, iMessages, and DMs when May 4 rolls around (Stars Wars Day) and "May the 4th be with you" is plastered all over the web for an entire 24 hours.

They'll also pop up whenever a new Star Wars movie or TV show comes out. It happened when the "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" film was released, and again when "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett" series hit the Disney+ streaming service. Keep an eye out for new stickers when the "Obi-Wan Kenobi," "Andor," and "Ahsoka" series materialize, as well as when the "Rogue Squadron" movie hits theaters.

Option 1: Use the Official Star Wars App

Disney has included Star Wars emoji and stickers in its Star Wars app for Android and iOS for some time now. Make sure you're running the latest version of the app to get all the newest icons and symbols for your text messages and chats.

Install Star Wars: Android (free) | iOS (free)

Open the app, then accept the terms and conditions and skip the login page (you can sign up if you want to, but it's not mandatory). Choose your app's theme, enable or deny notification permissions, then tap the "GIFS + EMOJIS" box on the homepage. In the "EMOJIS" tab, you'll find almost 200 characters and objects. Memorable characters such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 are all here, designed with a cute and friendly twist.

You'll also find newer characters, vehicles, droids, and creatures from throughout the Stars Wars franchise, like the crossguard lightsaber used by Kylo Ren, Kylo Ren himself, Poe Dameron, Rey, and the rolling BB-8 droid. And there are also emoji for the "Rogue One" spinoffs, including the Shoretrooper, Deathtrooper, Baze Malbus, Chirrut Îmwe, and K-2SO.

Adding an emoji to social media or a conversation differs from Android to iOS.

On Android, tap the emoji, then hit the share button and share it wherever you need it. You could also download the emoji to your photo gallery and upload it as an image file to where you need it. The third option, copying a link, just copies the URL to your clipboard, not the image itself.

On iOS, it's a lot simpler. Just tap the emoji. The app will automatically load it to your iPhone or iPad clipboard. You can paste it in Messages, on Facebook, or anywhere else by tapping or tap-and-holding the text field and selecting "Paste."

Since there is everything from fighter jets to lightsabers, you can get creative and even drop a short story in your texts or recreate an entire film if you've got that much spare time on your hands.

The Star Wars app also has a section called "STICKERS" you can choose to find stickers with more detail, but they're used via augmented reality in photos or videos you snap right then or on images you already have in your gallery. So you could send these in texts and chats, but it won't just be the sticker.

Option 2: Use iMessage Apps in Your Keyboard (iOS Only)

If you have an iPhone, some apps have iMessage apps you can add to the app drawer in Messages. To find them, open up any thread in Messages, then tap the App Store icon in the drawer. If you don't see the drawer, tap the App Store icon next to the text field to unhide it. Then, just search the App Store as you would normally, hunting for "Star Wars," "Mandalorian," or other keywords.

One caveat with this is that these Star Wars emoji and stickers usually aren't free. Here's a list of some of the ones we've found so far:

The Book of Boba Fett Stickers by Disney ($0.99)
Disney Emoji Blitz Game by Jam City, Inc. (free)
Grogu Sticker Pack by Disney ($0.99)
The Mandalorian Stickers by Disney ($0.99)
The Rise of Skywalker Stickers by Disney ($1.99)
Star Wars Stickers by Disney ($0.99)
Star Wars Stickers2 by Disney ($0.99)
Star Wars Stickers: 40th Anniv by Disney ($0.99)

Whichever you end up going with, install it, then go back to the iMessage app drawer and select its app icon. Scroll through all the characters and objects, select one, and it will automatically populate in the text field. All you have to do is hit the send button. It's also important to note that these emoji stickers will work in text messages (MMS), not just iMessage chats. They are just images, after all.

While the sticker packs that cost money show you all available emoji stickers in their sets, some, like the Disney Emoji Blitz Game, won't. That particular app is a game you have to play to unlock new Disney emoji, and the emoji stickers are all over the Disney spectrum. That means it may take some time to unlock any Star Wars-related content. However, Emoji Blitz supposedly has a keyboard you can install to use in any app, not just Messages, but it was not showing up for me.

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Option 3: Use Various Emoji Sticker Apps (Android Only)

If you have an Android phone, you're not left out of the Star Wars emoji stickers. On Google Play, you'll find all sorts of apps where you can copy and send Star Wars images, and here are just a few: