A wide, open-mouthed grin paired with eyes crinkled shut in genuine delight — that's the grinning face with smiling eyes. It reads warmer and more sincere than the wide-eyed grinning face, used for real laughter, a good joke landing, or just being happy to see someone.
What 😄 means
A yellow face with a pair of closed and inversely curved eyes, a broad smile with visible upper teeth, and a small portion of the tongue, which is shown either in red or pink. The tongue is not shown on all platforms.
The 😄 Grinning Face With Smiling eyes emoji is a combination of happiness, contentment, and unfiltered bliss. The smiling eyes in the emoji say it all. When someone smiles with their eyes, it's a whole new level of pure happiness, and that's exactly what this emoji signifies!
How and when to use it
- To show happiness and joy
- Express warmth and virtual comfort
- This emoji can also be used to show filial love; the kind of love a family shares.
Other Names
- 😄 Smiling face
- 😄 Affectionate face
- 😄 Happy face
- 😄 Pampered face
- 😄 Laughing Face
😄 in real conversations
What does 😄 mean in texting?
Genuine, warm happiness — real laughter or real gladness, not just a polite acknowledgment. It reads more sincere than most grinning faces because the eyes crinkle shut the way they actually do when something's truly funny or truly good news. 'Can't wait to see you 😄' means it, not just filling space.
Why does 😄 read warmer than 😃?
The eyes make the difference. 😃 keeps its eyes wide open in a startled, electric kind of happy — a reaction to something sudden. 😄 closes them into a soft crinkle, the look people actually get mid-laugh or mid-genuine-smile, which lands as steadier and more sincere. One's a jolt; the other's contentment.
What does 😄 mean under a friend's good news?
Real happiness for them, no sarcasm attached — the crinkled-eye grin is hard to read as anything but sincere, so it's a safe pick when you actually mean the congratulations. It fits better here than 😃's wide-eyed surprise, since good news from someone else usually calls for warmth rather than shock.
The lowdown
- Category
- Smileys & Emotion › face-smiling
- Codepoints
U+1F604- Emoji version
- Emoji 0.6
- Shortcodes
:smile:- Keywords
- eye, eyes, face, grin, grinning, happy, laugh, lol, mouth, open, smile, smiling
How it looks across platforms
Seeing a blank box instead of the emoji somewhere? Here's why that happens. Curious why the designs above don't match to begin with? Here's why that happens too.
⚡ Quick round
Which joined the keyboard first — 😄 Grinning Face with Smiling Eyes or 🇩🇯 Flag: Djibouti?
Runs with a crowd
😄 keeps company in happy emojis — tap-to-copy sets for when one emoji isn't enough.