Emoji Meanings

Laughing Emoji Compared: 😂 vs 🤣 vs 😆 vs 😄

The quickest way to rank the laughing emoji is by intensity: 😄 is a happy grin, 😆 is a big laugh, 😂 is laughing so hard you're crying, and 🤣 is laughing so hard you've fallen over. Around them sit a few close cousins, like 😁 and 😅, that look similar but mean something a bit different. Here's a side-by-side comparison.

The comparison table

😄 vs 😁: the grins

These two are the gentle end of the scale. 😄 Grinning Face with Smiling Eyes has an open-mouthed smile and happy, curved eyes. It reads as warm and sincere: "That's great news 😄."

😁 Beaming Face with Smiling Eyes shows a wide grin with teeth clenched. Depending on the platform it can look proud, cheeky or a little awkward, like posing for a photo. It's good for "Look what I did 😁."

😆: the big laugh

😆 Grinning Squinting Face has its eyes squeezed shut into ">" and "<" shapes and a wide-open mouth. It's a proper laugh, more energetic than a grin but without tears. It fits silly jokes, playful teasing and giddy excitement.

😂: tears of joy

😂 Face with Tears of Joy is the classic "that's hilarious" emoji. It has been one of the most widely used emoji for years, and in 2015 Oxford Dictionaries named it their Word of the Year. Because it's so common, some people now read it as a mild "haha" rather than real hysterics, a bit like typing "lol". Many younger people now use 😭 Loudly Crying Face for the same "this is too funny" feeling, which can confuse anyone who reads it literally; here is what the 😭 emoji usually means.

🤣: rolling on the floor

🤣 Rolling on the Floor Laughing is the same idea turned up further: the face is tilted on its side, crying with laughter. It's the emoji version of the old internet abbreviation "ROFL". It's newer than 😂, added in Unicode 9.0 in 2016, and it signals "I literally can't cope, this is so funny."

If you're choosing between them, a simple rule works: 😂 for funny, 🤣 for very funny.

😅: not quite a laugh

😅 Grinning Face with Sweat looks like a laughing face, but the drop of sweat changes the meaning. It's a nervous, relieved or embarrassed laugh: "I nearly missed the train 😅" or "Oops, wrong chat 😅." Don't use it when you just mean "that's funny".

🤭 and 😹: the side options

🤭 Face with Hand Over Mouth suggests a stifled giggle, or "oops, I shouldn't have said that". It's more coy than any of the others. 😹 Cat with Tears of Joy means the same as 😂 and is popular with cat lovers or anyone who wants a slightly sillier tone.

Animated laughing smileys

A static emoji can only show one frame of a laugh. An animated smiley can show the whole thing. Our laughing smiley cracks up until a tear of laughter rolls down, making it a natural animated alternative to 😂. For pure excitement rather than laughter, the bouncing smiley can't keep still, and the hoorah smiley leaps up with confetti when the news is worth celebrating.

Picking the right one

• Mildly amused: 😄 or 😆
• Genuinely funny: 😂
• Can't breathe: 🤣
• Embarrassed laugh: 😅
• Giggling at something cheeky: 🤭

On forums, one laughing smiley after a good joke is a nice compliment to the poster; a whole row of them can feel like mockery if the thread is tense. Our forum smiley etiquette guide covers this in more detail, and angel and halo smileys explains another group of faces that are often used with a wink.