What does the upside-down emoji mean?

If you ever find yourself confused by trends in online messaging, don’t beat yourself up about it — internet trends move so quickly that even people who are constantly connected can find themselves out of the loop. One potentially baffling thing in chat these days is the upside-down smile emoji, which can have several different meanings based on context.

What does the upside-down emoji mean?

Irony/sarcasm

This is one of the most common uses since it’s relatively easy to decipher from context. Adding the upside-down smile emoji may even be important if your message could be mistaken for a serious opinion.

• Example: “That corporate team-building meeting sounds like a blast🙃”

Humor/silliness

Even with non-ironic messages, people sometimes want to clarify that they’re just joking around or having fun.

• Example: “Hell yeah, that was soooo funny 🙃”

Embarrassment

Here, usage takes the edge off of an uncomfortable topic, or something a person said or did by accident. As you’d expect, a frequent example is apologizing for texting the wrong person.

• Example: “Oops, sorry. 🙃 That was meant for John.”

Flirting

Playing off the humor and embarrassment angles, people might sometimes use the emoji to keep dating and sex talk light — possibly too light if you’re talking about topics like falling in love or going exclusive.

• Example: “Let’s hang out at my place this weekend 🙃”
• Example: “I like you, but let’s save the relationship talk for a little later 🙃”

Frustration

When complaining, the upside-down emoji can sometimes be preferable to angry characters if you don’t want to come across as furious. However, depending on the circumstances, a message could be interpreted as a joke, passive-aggressive, or not taking things seriously enough.

• Example: “I guess Facebook is down again! 🙃”

FAQs