The official Unicode name of the emoji commonly called the poop emoji is “Pile of Poo.”
Pile of Poo is the standardized name for the smiling brown mound emoji, 💩. Unicode names are formal identifiers used in character data and technical references; they do not have to match the informal names people use in conversation. “Poop emoji” is the everyday term, while “poo” is the wording chosen for the Unicode name.
The character was included in Unicode 6.0 in 2010 as part of the emoji characters added for broad compatibility. Its friendly face makes it usable in jokes, playful insults and references to mess, although context determines the intended meaning.
The emoji is sometimes mistaken for an ice-cream swirl because of its shape and brown color. Unicode's name and the familiar Japanese emoji tradition make its intended subject clear. Platform artwork can vary, but the underlying character is the same across compatible systems.