😝 is a face with eyes scrunched tight into ＞＜-style lines and a tongue stuck out. It came into Unicode in 2010 with the early emoji, and its Unicode name is the wordy “face with stuck-out tongue and tightly closed eyes,” now shortened to “squinting face with tongue.” People also call it the “XD tongue” or just the “tongue out” face. Its main job is teasing and goofing around, the visual version of a playful “nyah-nyah.”
How it’s used
- Teasing a friend: “you got that one wrong 😝”
- Playful refusal: “nope, mine, you can’t have it 😝”
- Giddy excitement: “it’s finally Friday 😝”
- Marking a joke: “love working late again 😝 (kidding)”
- Showing off food: “eating the best fries right now 😝”
😛 (face with tongue) is the plain version with open eyes, 😜 (winking face with tongue) hints at a sly joke with one eye shut, and 🤪 (zany face) goes full chaos with mismatched eyes. 😝 shuts both eyes completely, so it is the most openly cheeky of the group.
Korea, Japan and the English-speaking world
In English, 😝 sits in the “just kidding” zone: “told you so 😝,” “can’t catch me 😝,” “jealous? 😝.” It has a childlike, playground flavor, and because its closed eyes resemble the laughing 😆 (grinning squinting face), it often doubles as a shorthand for giggly laughter. Occasionally it is used for “yuck” at something gross, but that is less common than the teasing reading.
In Korea, the emoji fits almost one to one with the word 메롱, the sound a child makes when sticking out the tongue at a friend. It feels familiar, cute and affectionate, and couples use it for playful banter. Added to the end of a sentence, it can soften the tone with a “just teasing.” With seniors or business contacts it can look too casual.
In Japan, the name 目を閉じてべー points to the べー sound of sticking out the tongue, a cousin of the old gesture あっかんべー, where a child pulls down an eyelid and sticks out the tongue. It reads as childlike teasing, a joke among close friends or a way to cover embarrassment. In an apology or a thank-you message it can seem insincere.
Where it gets misread
- In a serious discussion or a conflict, it looks like mockery. Don’t use it with an apology or a complaint.
- 😋 (face savoring food) is for yummy food, while 😝 is aimed more at people. They are not interchangeable.
- Between partners it is playful, but paired with certain other emojis it can read as flirting, so know your audience.
- It can ease tension in a work chat, but it is better left out of messages to a boss.
Design differences by platform
The shared recipe is tightly shut eyes and a tongue out. The variations are in the length and color of the tongue, how wide the mouth opens and how the eye lines curve. Apple’s tongue is pink and the expression fairly realistic, Google’s Noto has a simple, round face with a clearly visible tongue, Microsoft’s Fluent is soft and three-dimensional, and Samsung’s emphasizes the squint for a more mischievous look. On some platforms the tongue sits in the middle and on others it tilts to one side, which changes how cheeky it looks.
