😜 is a face with one eye squeezed shut in a wink and the tongue hanging out to the side. It came over from the original Japanese carrier emoji and has always meant playful teasing. There are several tongue-out faces: 😛 (plain tongue), 😝 (eyes squeezed shut) and 😋 (savoring food), but the wink gives 😜 the strongest sense of “you know I’m joking, right?” People call it the “winky tongue,” “crazy face” or just “the tongue-out wink.”
How it’s used
- After a joke: “I ate all your leftovers 😜”
- Light teasing: “Late again? 😜”
- Playful bragging: “Payday 😜”
- Cheeky requests: “Buy me a coffee? 😜”
- Photo captions: on a selfie where you are actually making the face
Where 😉 is a subtle “we both know what I mean,” 😜 adds the tongue and drops any subtlety; it is openly goofing around. 😝 shuts both eyes and feels either more intense or more “ugh, you got me,” and 😛 is the mildest, most neutral tongue-out. 😜 sits in the middle and is the clearest way to flag “this was a joke.”
Korea, Japan and the English-speaking world
In English it was everywhere in text messages through the mid-2010s and is still read as “just kidding” or “teasing.” It has since picked up a reputation as a millennial emoji, the kind of thing younger users joke about seeing in a parent’s texts. It also carries a mild flirtatious edge, less than 😉 but enough that some people think twice before sending it to a new acquaintance. In most contexts it is simply cheeky.
In Korea it is read straightforwardly as 메롱 (the “nyah” tongue-out taunt). Friends use it to tease each other on KakaoTalk, and in the early 2010s it was common to tack it onto ㅋㅋㅋ. Younger Koreans now see it as a bit of an older-generation choice and reach for 🤪 or 😝 instead, while people in their thirties and up still use it freely.
In Japan its name is あっかんべー (akanbē), the childhood taunt of pulling down one eyelid and sticking out the tongue, so the link to playground teasing is explicit. It also works like てへっ (“tee-hee”) to cutely brush off a small mistake, and as a joke marker in 冗談だよ😜 (“just kidding”). It is common in casual LINE chats and never used with superiors.
Where it gets misread
- Because it can read as flirting in English, it is risky with coworkers or people you don’t know well. The intended “just kidding” may land as something else.
- Attached to an apology or a real request, it suggests you aren’t actually sorry or serious. If the message isn’t a joke, leave it off.
- It gets confused with 🤪 (zany face), but they differ: 🤪 has mismatched eyes and a wilder expression that means “losing it,” while 😜 is a lighter “kidding.”
- Some younger readers consider it dated. If you are texting a teenager, 😝 or 🤪 reads more naturally.
Design differences by platform
Apple closes the right eye, opens the left one wide and sends a long glossy tongue down to the left, the most mischievous-looking version. Google’s Noto has a rounder face and a shorter tongue, closer to a gentle “nyah.” Microsoft’s Fluent adds depth and a raised eyebrow that emphasizes the prank. Samsung draws the closed eye as a single line with a broad flat tongue, giving it a slightly more rascally look. The tongue points left on some platforms and right on others, which can clash with a selfie caption, but the meaning doesn’t change.
