The winking face with tongue (😜) is the internet’s chaos gremlin in emoji form—half flirt, half prank. It says “just kidding,” “don’t cancel me,” or the classic “jk jk… unless?” all in one goofy blink. People drop it after a roast, a punny dad joke, or a risky take to soften the blow. It’s flirty without being too serious, making it perfect for playful banter, thirst-trappy captions, or teasing dares. In meme-speak, it carries “I said what I said but please laugh” energy and pairs well with chaotic-good humor. Spiritually, it’s the modern upgrade of the old-school ;P emoticon from AIM and MSN days. It also pops up ironically to make boring updates sound mischievous on purpose.
On Apple/iOS, it’s a bright yellow face with a soft gradient, the left eye tightly winked, the right eye wide and circular, and a big open mouth showing a pink tongue flopped slightly to the viewer’s left. The look is straight-on, glossy, and eyebrow-free, with clean shading that makes it feel like a bouncy sticker. That asymmetrical wink-plus-tongue combo is instantly recognizable and reads as “teasing, not toxic.” You’ll see it in group chats after chaotic plans, in captions that lean silly-hot, and in posts nodding to the iconic tongue-out vibe of rock posters. Use sparingly—overdosing on 😜 can come off cringe—but in the right moment it nails playful sarcasm, harmless trolling, or a low-stakes flirt.
Definition
A face with one closed eye, one wild-looking open eye, open mouth and tongue sticking out. Wildly and crazy silliness. This emoji is a nut, potentially certifiably so.
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
This emoji was part of the proprietary / non-standardized emoji set first introduced by Japanese carriers like Softbank. These emojis became part of the Apple iPhone starting in iOS 2.2 as an unlockable feature on handsets sold in English speaking countries.
In iOS 5 / OSX 10.7, the underlying code that the Apple OS generates for this emoji was changed.
