U+1F994 · emoji since 2017
The hedgehog is a tiny spiky ball of cute. It stands for being prickly on the outside, soft on the inside.
People use it for adorable defensiveness, cozy garden vibes, and curling up away from the world. Small and spiky.
In texting, 🦔 does not carry a widely used hidden or slang meaning, so you can usually take it at face value. People send it just as it looks, to add a little visual touch or set the mood of a message. Only a handful of emoji have a separate texting code, and 🦔 is not really one of them.
Its official Unicode name is the Hedgehog emoji. In everyday chat most people just call it the hedgehog emoji or describe what it shows. Copy and paste it from the button at the top of this page.
The 🦔 leads off a short phrase, and the rest of the words are written in cipher, every letter disguised as another emoji. Tap decipher to reveal the whole line.
Or make your own cipher in the translator.