People have just worked out what the message on paper emoji actually says

If you've ever found yourself exchanging messages about paperwork, documents or letters, you might have used a certain emoji.

The small digital icons help people illustrate their points and emphasise their emotions, on top of the fact they also manage to make your virtual correspondence look a little bit cuter.

We've previously heard how a lot of them have so-called 'hidden meanings', as well as how some emojis might be misinterpreted depending on the age of the person you send it to. And now, emoji-obsessed social media users have just discovered that one fairly mundane icon actually contains a 'secret message'.

It turns out there's more than meets the eye when it comes to the humble paper emoji, which is also known as the 'Page Facing Up' emoji.

According to Emojipedia, the tiny icon depicts a 'white piece of paper' and its top right corner is either 'curled or dog-eared'.

It explains that it is supposed to resemble a 'business letter or icon for a document on a computer', so, to ensure it looks the part, there is some text printed on it.

But unless you have an incredibly powerful magnifying glass, the words appear to be pretty much impossible to read, hence why a host of people have been left stunned after finding out that what they thought was just a blurry jumble of letters is actually a coherent message.

Social media users couldn't contain their surprise while discussing the revelation on X, which came after someone announced they had just realised that the 'paper emoji has an actual message'.

After zooming in on the Page Facing Up emoji and making it clearer, the user claimed to have deciphered the hidden message.

theres an actual message on apple’s paper emoji. 📄 pic.twitter.com/67ka0MAsaD

— sui dev ☄️ (@birdabo) January 26, 2026

According to people online, the message reads: "Dear Kate, Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

"The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

"Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

"Because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. Take care, John Appleseed."

People couldn't believe that they hadn't spotted the contents of the letter to Kate before, while one pointed out that the 'attention to detail is insane'.

Another said: "Damn the message is good...I love when [software developers] leave such tokens of their own in the things they built."

A third added: "One of my favorite Easter eggs."

A fourth chimed in saying: "Damn I fr missed that one so many times."

Emojipedia claims that the message is inspired by a slogan from Apple's Think Different advertising campaign, which was launched in 1997 and ran until 2002.

Meanwhile, the moniker 'John Appleseed' is what Apple uses in its demos to this day. Still, no one is quite sure on who Kate is.

The same words are also said to appear on the 'Scroll emoji', so keep an eye out for Appleseed's motivational message next time you're scrolling through the paper-related icons.