A long time before emojis, there were emoticons or emotion icons. These symbols composing punctuation marks and other special characters express the same emotions as the present-day emoji, only with basic quality. Nothing high definition. But hereโs whatโs funny.
Many people around the world still find those emoticons a lot more pleasing and cute than emojis. Seems like the simple stuff wins. Just like emojis, emoticons too are endless. Though they seem definite, there are always new additions to the list. Theyโre as broadly classified as emojis.
Types of Emoticons
There are three basic types of emoticons; Eastern, Western, and 2Channel. There are additional styles such as Korean, Chinese and combination emoticons.
The most popular emoticon formats are the Western and the Eastern styles. Theyโre also known as horizontal and vertical emoticons respectively because one occurs sideways and the other, upright or erect.
Given the length of the emoticon list, this blog post covers only the famous signs and also a couple of new or niche signs that are not as famous.

๐ Slightly Smiling Face
Prior to the current digital era, the resting bitch face was conveyed with a ๐. However, this emoticon, along with its variations :-), =), :3, :], :-], =], :-3, ^_^ (^_^), ^.^, and (^.^) also communicate a warm and genuine (sarcasm-free) ๐ Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes.

๐ Grinning Face With Big Eyes Emoji
If we were to show that weโre surprised, excited, joyful, or just extra happy, with more than just words, weโd use ๐, ๐ Grinning Face With Smiling Eyes, ๐ Grinning Face, or even ๐บ Grinning Cat. But back in the day, the format was anywhere among :D, :-D, or =D.

๐ Grinning Squinting Face
One of the popular ways of laughing with an emoticon is XD. This symbol directly mimics the present emoji. However, XD suggests an LMAO or a โbig, loud, gagging, laughโ. The same sign but with lowercase (xD) would indicate that youโre laughing but not bawling. Other variants are ones with noses; X-D and x-D.
Laughter with โtears of joyโ is shown as :โ) or :โ-) which is essentially the basic version of the ๐ Tears of Joy or the ๐น Cat With Tears of Joy.

๐ Pensive Face
The expression that inspired this pensive face is the OG โsad faceโ or ๐. Though ๐ shows deep thinking, itโs mostly used to show grief. Other emoticons that fit this emotion are :-(, :[, and :-[ (the latter two look like sad people, but with mustaches).
Tears are the same, only the emotion backing these tears differ. The same โtears of joyโ in the previous section is shown as a ๐ข Crying Face with :'( or :โ-( (the curve goes the other way around).
But, what if the emoticons mentioned here just donโt fit the sadness youโre feeling? Worry not! You could always deepen the curve! The deeper the curve, the sadder the face; :c, :-c, :C :-C, :<, and :-<.

๐ Heart Eyes
Yes, we could show that we love, admire or find something luring with a heart emoticon (scroll down to know more about it). But, we cannot personify that emoticon with a face. Or so we thought.
Using very few emoticons does not mean there are very few, it only shows that weโre not aware of the rest. Even without mainstream emojis, you can show that you have โheart eyesโ for something or someone with 8), 8-), 8D, 8-D and B^D (tilt your head a little if you didnโt get this one). 8 and B make for the hearts.
If you want to show this emotion vertically, you can use *-*, *_*, @[email protected], (@[email protected]), +.+, (+.+), +_+, and (+_+).

๐ Face Blowing a Kiss
Kisses are the easiest and the cutest emoticons. Itโs as simple as a :*. If you want more details to convert that Voldemort kiss into a human one, use it with a nose :-*. You could also apply kisses with โXโsโ โ ๐ก.

๐ Angry Face
An angry face is less angry and more hilarious in the emoticon world. Thereโs a heavy emphasis on the eyebrows and thatโs the highlight of this emoticonโs detailing. So, when youโre pissed, hereโs the look on your face >:[.

๐ฎ Face With Open Mouth
A face with a mouth wide open definitely shows surprise. It expresses awe and disbelief too, which can be fulfilled with ๐ฎ or ๐ฎ.
However, if the intensity of the same was doubled or tripled, then the ๐ฒ Astonished Face would come in handy. Hereโs how you make that reaction an emoticon โ :O or :-O (the more uppercase, the more emotion).
The โverticalโ emoticon variations of this emoji are โ o_o, o_O, o_0, o.o, O.o, and (o.o).

๐ Winking Face
Winks are communicated via semi-colons (;). So, if you were winking at someone but without emoji, then you can send these emoticons โ ;-), ;), ;], ;-], ;> or ;->.
If the wink is less creepy and more goofy then the ๐ Winking Face With Tongue will do the trick. The perfect emoticons to pull this off are ;-p, ;p, ;-P or ;P. The tongue in emojis is depicted with a โPโ if youโre being super goofy, and a โpโ if youโre just being you.
Similarly, you can use the following emoticons to match the given โtongue emojisโ:
- ๐ Face With Tongue โ :-P, :P, :-p, :p, :b, :-b.
- ๐ Squinting Face With Tongue โ xp, x-p, XP, X-P, xb, Xb, x-b, X-b.

๐ Confused Face
You see that diagonal or โcrossedโ mouth? The one that shows confusion, uncertainty, and wonder? The ๐ Confused Face emoji was inspired by :/. This emoticon is quite literally the original confused face. Other variants are โ :-/, :\, :-\, =/ and =\.
You could also show uncertainty with the ๐ Neutral Face emoji, which can be equally and effectively achieved with ๐ or :-|.

โค๏ธ Hearts
There are tons of colored hearts in the world and on the emoji list. But red hearts are the most popular in both worlds. Itโs almost the best of both. Hence, we wound this section down to the โค๏ธ Red Heart.
Heart emoticons are super easy and super cute. All you need is something lesser than the number 3. This works even in the case of a broken heart, but with an oblique to define things a little.
- โค๏ธ โ <3
- ๐ โ </3 or <\3

๐ Raising Hands
These are, what weโd like to call, the โconcert handsโ. Your hands up in the air, like you donโt care about the booze in your hair.
This may not be one of the mainstream emoticons, but \0/ or \o/ is how you show that youโre having as much of a good time as you would with ๐.
If you want to add in some sparkle and confetti-like excitement to this โcheer emoticonโ, like a cheerleader, hereโs what you do โ *\0/*.

๐ฃ Persevering Face
A persevering face has visible signs of exhaustion, uneasiness, indecisiveness, and mostly, discomfort through it all. Itโs fine if you do not want to apply this emoji while sharing something personal to do with any of the above. You can use >.< and it does the same.
The ๐ Confounded Face is used in contexts that closely align with the persevering face. So, if confoundment is what youโre after, then you can express it with these emoticons >_< or (>_<).

๐ Unamused Face
๐ fulfills the need to let someone know that youโre unimpressed or just plainly unamused. But, if you want to ditch the yellow face and use a punctuated face instead, here are the options: ~_~, ~.~, (~_~) and (~.~)
๐ also works in similar frameworks as the unamused face but with a slight change of intention. Here, the emoji intends is to show irritation, frustration, and a way of saying โWTF?โ. The emoticon replacements for this emoji are: (-_-), -_- , (-.-), and -.-.

๐ง Anguished Face
An anguished face is a pained face. ๐ง is clearly going through something or has witnessed something saddening.
When it comes to sadness emoticons are formatted differently. Usually, the horizontal symbols go from left to right, but sad emoticons work reversely. So, the emoticon symbols to show anguish would be D: , D-: , and D=.
Some of the other โreversed emoticonsโ are:
- ๐ซ Tired Face โ DX, Dx, D-x, or D-X
- ๐ฐ Anxious Face With Sweat โ D:โ or D-:โ
Other Niche Emoticons
- ๐ธ Grinning Cat With Smiling Eyes โ =^.^= and (=^.^=)
- ๐ High Fives โ ^5 (some emoticon wordplay), o/\o and >_>^^<_<
- ๐ Smiling Face With Sunglasses โ B-)
- ๐ด Sleeping Face โ (-_-)zzz
- ๐ Santa โ *<|:-)
- ๐คจ Skepical Face โ โ,:-|
- ๐ Smiling Face With Halo โ 0:-), O:-), O:), 0:), O:3, 0:-3, and O;^)
- ๐ Smiling Devil Face โ >:-), >:), }:-), }:) 3:-), and 3:)
If youโre someone who loves emoticons or wants to shift from emojis to emoticons, we hope you found our list helpful.