Loudly crying face 😭

How to read it

😭 is U+1F62D LOUDLY CRYING FACE, approved in Unicode 6.0 in 2010. Emojipedia says SoftBank first put it on Japanese emoji keyboards in 2000, and Unicode’s mapping file for the carriers’ emoji lists it under DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank. Unicode’s emoji data labels it E0.6, the label Unicode’s emoji standard gives the emoji added in Unicode 6.0 in 2010, which include those from the Japanese carriers’ sets. Unicode’s keywords for it are about sorrow: bawling, cry, sad, sob, tears and unhappy. In messages it is used differently. Dictionary.com’s entry says people tend not to send it when they are genuinely sad, such as when they lose a loved one, and save its tears for something that has brought them “tremendous joy, hilarity, or some gushy sentiment”, like fans seeing a favourite performer; it can also show frustration, or mock a crybaby. Emojipedia calls it often exaggerated or humorous, for laughter, joy, affection, excitement, disbelief, fear or frustration, with grief the less frequent use. Emojipedia’s Jeremy Burge noted in 2021 that its use for laughter confused some people, given that it was meant as a sad emoji.

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How younger people use it

Dictionary.com’s 2022 guide says millennials used 😭 for strong emotions that might really make you cry, such as extreme sadness, frustration or relief, while Gen Z uses it “more exclusively” for positive feelings, when something is so funny, cute or sweet that it is overwhelming: “Look at my puppy wearing his new Halloween costume. 😭”.

The most used emoji of 2025

Emojipedia records that in March 2021 😭 became the most used emoji on Twitter, ending almost a decade of 😂 at the top, until 😂 narrowly took the place back in February 2022. In Google’s Gboard data for 2025, analysed by The New York Times and reported by the Deseret News and ThePrint, it was the most used emoji worldwide, more than 6% of all emoji sent, up from fourth in 2024. The Deseret News says it overtook 🤣 and 😂 largely because young people decided those two were overused, according to linguists and the Times’ reading of Reddit forums; ThePrint calls it an all-purpose emoji for humour, strong emotions and crying. Among teenagers, the skull 💀 briefly outpaced it in 2022 and 2023.

Look-alikes

😢 crying face has a single tear; Dictionary.com says it is used for feeling down and for sympathising with others. 😂 face with tears of joy is laughing while it cries, with keywords such as haha, lol and rofl. Emojipedia notes that Google and Samsung draw 😭’s tears pooling or splashing below the face, and that early Google, Samsung and Microsoft designs had large separate tears in place of streams.