Face with Tongue — the "I'm joking, relax" face
The tongue out emoji 😛 means playful teasing or "just kidding." Senders add it after a joke, a light dig or a cheeky brag so the message reads as fun rather than serious, and often as low-key flirting between people who already talk.
✍️ Written & reviewed against real usage · verified Unicode 16.0Tap to copy · pastes in WhatsApp, Instagram, anywhere
These are the real emoji characters — tap one to copy it, then paste anywhere. Because they’re text, they show up as emoji wherever you send them.
😛 is Face with Tongue: open smile, tongue sticking straight out, both eyes open. That last detail is the whole meaning. Because it does not wink and does not squint, it reads as innocent mischief rather than a punchline or a suggestive hint. People use it as a tone tag — it retroactively marks whatever came before it as a joke. "You're the worst driver alive 😛" is affectionate. Without it, that same text starts an argument. It also does the work of a shrug when someone teases you back: 😛 says "yeah, caught me, whatever." In flirting it is deliberately kid-brother energy — playful, safe, not thirsty. That is why it survives in group chats where 😉 or 😏 would be read as loaded. Older users learned it as the classic MSN and AIM sticking-out-tongue face, so for a lot of people it is a habit emoji, not a statement.
Tacked on after a joke or light dig so it lands as teasing, not attitude. Think verbal elbow-nudge.
Low-stakes flirting. Playful and safe — it signals interest without the loaded energy of 😉 or 😏.
Caption garnish for a silly fail, a chaotic hack or a self-roast: "it worked I guess 😛".
Standard trash-talk softener after a win. "ez 😛" reads as banter instead of a genuine insult.
From a girl, 😛 is usually playful, not suggestive. It marks her message as a joke or a tease and keeps the tone light on purpose — it is the emoji people pick when they want warmth without the flirty weight of 😉 or 😏. Read it as friendly-open: she is comfortable enough to mess with you. Whether it means more than that comes from the rest of the conversation, not the face. If she pairs it with a compliment or teases you specifically, that leans flirty; if it follows a random joke or a group-chat reply, it is just her tone. Do not over-read a single 😛 — it is one of the most habitual emoji on phones, especially for people who came up on MSN.
Face with Tongue 😛 and Winking Face with Tongue 😜 look closely related and get swapped constantly, but they land differently in a message. Here is what separates them, so you send the one you actually mean.
Both eyes open. Pure playful teasing, "just kidding" energy. Safe in group chats and with people you do not know well — nobody reads it as loaded.
Same face plus a wink. The wink adds a knowing, cheeky or flirty layer, like you two share a secret. Send this when you want the tease to carry a hint.
It’s the same character everywhere — each platform just draws it in its own style. Here are three open emoji sets side by side, plus how your own device renders it:
| Platform | How it differs |
|---|---|
| Apple | Bright yellow face, wide open smile with a soft pink tongue hanging straight down. Both eyes are plain black dots. |
| Rounder face, smaller tongue tucked lower in the mouth. Reads noticeably tamer and more childlike than Apple's. | |
| Samsung | Glossier face with a thicker, more prominent tongue and a wider grin — the most cartoonish of the major sets. |
| Close to Apple's design, slightly flatter shading. Renders the same across Android and iOS in-app. | |
| Windows and Twitter/X | Flat minimal style, short stubby tongue. On smaller screens it can be mistaken for a plain open-mouth smile. |
Apple, Samsung and WhatsApp draw their own proprietary versions, which we don’t redistribute — the notes above describe how they differ. Open sets shown under their licences: Twemoji (CC-BY 4.0), Noto Emoji (Apache 2.0), OpenMoji (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The tongue out emoji 😛 is not always read the way you intend it. These three situations change what 😛 signals, and knowing them keeps you from sending the wrong message.
Quick answers to what people ask most about the tongue out emoji 😛 — what it means in a text, who tends to send it, and how to copy it onto your own keyboard.
Usually playful teasing or joking, the same as anyone else. Guys often use it to soften banter, a brag or a light insult. It can be mild flirting if he uses it only with you and pairs it with teasing compliments, but on its own it is friendly rather than suggestive.
Mildly, at most. It is the safest of the tongue faces because both eyes are open, so it reads playful rather than suggestive. 😉 and 😏 carry far more flirty weight. Context decides: a 😛 after a compliment leans flirty, a 😛 after a random joke does not.
😛 has both eyes open and simply means playful or just kidding. 😜 winks, which adds a knowing, cheeky or flirty layer, like there is an inside joke. 😝 has both eyes squeezed shut and is the most exaggerated of the three, used for silly or gross-out reactions.
Often, yes. It works as a tone tag that marks the previous sentence as not literal. It is gentler than 🙃 or a slash-s tag though — it signals lighthearted joking rather than bitter or pointed sarcasm.
Its official Unicode name is Face with Tongue, codepoint U+1F61B, with the shortcode :stuck_out_tongue:. It was approved in Unicode 6.1 in 2012 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.
No. 👅 is the standalone Tongue emoji and is frequently used in suggestive or thirsty contexts. 😛 is a full face and reads as innocent, playful teasing. Sending them means very different things, so they are not interchangeable.
If 😛 came up in a conversation, these are the emoji people most often look up next — each one explained the same way, with meanings you can actually use and characters you can copy.