Emojiology: ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face

John M. Kelly

• 5 min read
Emojiology: ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face

We use emojis to help us express emotions, but sometimes itโ€™s the emojis themselves that bring them on. Exhibit A: ๐Ÿ˜ญ.

Social media manager Jasmyn Lawson ignited a Twitter debate last year when she proposed some guidelines for crying emojis:

The replies were heated and divided. Some crowed agreement that ๐Ÿ˜ญ is downright inappropriate for condolences, as it howls with laughterโ€”not tears. Others recoiled at the very thought, prescribing the emojiโ€™s official name, Loudly Crying Face, as its one true meaning.

One astute emoji enthusiast, @fortgeorgie, noted that the appearance of ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face varies by platform and observed: โ€œItโ€™s all about actual usage not the generic names.โ€

We here at Emojipedia couldnโ€™t agree more and voiced as much in the great ๐Ÿ˜ญ debate:

Our passions now excited, letโ€™s lower the temperature with some cool-headed, deep-breathing emojiology of ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face.

๐Ÿ”ค Meaning

๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face conveys uncontrollable feelings and overwhelming sentiments, ranging from grief and disappointment to hilarity and joy. Its tone is often meant to be hyperbolic.

The emoji is not to be confused with ๐Ÿ˜‚ Face With Tears of Joy, though it frequently gets paired with it and is used for the same effect.

๐Ÿ’ฌ Development

๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face is one of the originals, with roots in Japanese cellular carriers back in 1999. It came into wide release under Unicode 6.0 in 2010.

Since then, ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face has become one of the most popular emojis, far outstripping its blue brethren, including its neighbor on the Apple keyboard, ๐Ÿ˜ข Crying Face.

In 2015, ๐Ÿ˜ข Crying Face ranked as the third most used emoji on Twitter, outpaced by the uncatchable No. 1 ๐Ÿ˜‚ Face With Tears of Joy and No. 2 โค๏ธ Red Heart. It clinched another impressive bronze in 2017 on Apple devices, again looking up to ๐Ÿ˜‚ Face With Tears of Joy and โค๏ธ Red Heart on the podium.

On most platforms, the not-so-smiling smiley ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face is yellow-faced and open-mouthed, as if inconsolably bawling or sobbingโ€”two other common names it goes by. Down its cheeks rush two heavy streams of tears, which collect into a pitiful pool on the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

Loudly-Crying-Face-Across-Platforms-Emojipedia
Above: The Loudly Crying Face emoji is becoming increasingly similar across platforms, with two streams of tears running down its face. HTC and LG stick with teardrops and Mozilla opts for a blue face.

There are some notable exceptions, though. On HTC and LG, ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face features squinting eyes shedding two teardrops. Perhaps the tech companies will take a cue from Samsung and Google, who've brought their versions of the emoji in line with Appleโ€™s twin cascades in recent updates.

Google-Samsung-Loudly-Crying-Face-Comparison-Emojipedia
Above (left to right): The Loudly Crying Face emoji on Google Android 7.0, Google Android 8.1, Samsung TouchWiz 7.1, and Samsung Experience 9.1.

Mozilla, as ever, is the outlier among major vendors, its ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face shedding a single tear from a blue face, a convention it uses for other sad or stressed-out smileys.

While Appleโ€™s emoji-craft so often leads the way, perhaps its ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face is the odd smiley out this time, which might help explain why it is so popular among its usersโ€”and confusing to others.

To the casual viewer, Appleโ€™s ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face has eyes that are nearly identical to ๐Ÿ˜‚ Face With Tears of Joy. If you zoom in, you'll notice that the eyebrows of ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face are a hair thicker and closer to the eyes, which are slightly nearer and higher up on the face. The result accentuates the waterworks but also reduces the impact of the wailing mouth. The result also yields a ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face that looks a little less upset than its counterparts on other platforms.

Apple-Face-With-Tears-of-Joy-Loudly-Crying-Face-Comparison-Emojipedia
Above: At a glance, the eyes of Apple's Face With Tears of Joy emoji (left) appear the same as those of its Loudly Crying Face (right), but a closer inspection reveals subtle and important differences.

Apple's design makes ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face available not only as a more intensive form of ๐Ÿ˜ข Crying Face, as apparently intended, but of ๐Ÿ˜‚ Face With Tears of Joy as well. It's sobbing is, just not necessarily with grief but with gratitude, pride, love, excitementโ€”with tears of, well, joy.

As one keen-eyed commenter distilled the essential conflict in Lawsonโ€™s controversial tweet:

Two other forces may be at work, however.

The first is something weโ€™ll call the reaction treadmill. In emoji-dom, ๐Ÿ˜‚ Face With Tears of Joy holds court as a go-to and baseline for marking something as funny or enjoyable, keeping us running to ever more heightened and expressive ways to register strong feelings, like ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face.

The second is that we generally favor emojis with positive emotional content. The digital realm can be a dark and nasty place, no doubt, but the data show that in our Snaps and Instas, our WhatsApps and iMessages, we like love and laughter.

To wit, ๐Ÿ˜ Smiling Face With Heart Eyes and ๐Ÿ˜˜ Face Blowing a Kiss rounded out Appleโ€™s 2017 Top Five. Besides ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face, the only other emojis with surface-level negativity in the Top Ten were ๐Ÿ’€ Skull and ๐Ÿ˜ฉ Weary Faceโ€”whose application joins ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face in skewing towards the sarcastic or dramatic.

โœ… Examples

In use, ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face cranks the emotions up to 11, feeling all the feels. This can include being overjoyed at accomplishments:

Being moved to tears by a beautiful wedding:

Or when we just canโ€™t handle our fandom:

The swell of gratitude and humility can overtake us with ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face:

So, too, the power of love:

And babies:

And pizza:

Sometimes we turn on the faucets of ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face when weโ€™re feeling run down:

Or utterly stumped:

Very often, as noted, we use ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face when something puts us in stitches:

Finally, for as much as Jasmyn Lawson is right that ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face can be out of place in serious contexts, the emoji still has a more somber and serious side. It can help convey the sadness of missing a loved one, losing a dear pet, or learning horrible news:

Missing them already #๐Ÿ˜ญ

A post shared by Catherine Goico (@cathygoico) on

๐Ÿ—’๏ธ Usage Notes

Whether using or interpreting ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face, be mindful that it's an actor with incredible range on the emoji stage, capable of comedy, tragedy, and a whole lot of melodrama. But whatever the genre, the emoji wants to make sure its voice can be heard at the back of the theaterโ€”it is named Loudly Crying Face after all.

There's just no sense in scripting or typecasting what ๐Ÿ˜ญ Loudly Crying Face is loudly crying about.