Introduction: The Digital Language of Emojis
In today’s fast-paced digital world, emojis have become more than just playful icons—they are a universal language. These tiny symbols speak volumes in our text messages, social media posts, and online conversations. From expressing love and joy to sorrow and sarcasm, emojis help bridge emotional gaps in virtual communication. Among the countless emojis we use daily, one has recently captured the collective heart of internet users: the pleading face emoji
With its big, watery eyes, a slight frown, and innocent expression, the pleading face has taken over platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. It’s often used to express vulnerability, affection, or a heartfelt request, and has even earned nicknames like the crybaby emoji. Whether it’s used humorously to ask for a favor or sweetly to express admiration, the pleading face emoji has become a go-to symbol of emotional appeal.
In this blog, we’ll take a deep dive into the story of the pleading face, its emotional versatility, and why it resonates so deeply in modern digital culture. From its rise in popularity and its role in meme trends to how it compares with other expressive emojis like the crybaby emoji and drool emoji, we’ll explore how one small face became such a big part of how we communicate online.
Let’s explore the soft power of the pleading face emoji—the icon that makes us all go, “aww.”
What is the Pleading Face Emoji?
The pleading face emoji is one of the most emotionally expressive icons in the emoji world. At first glance, its design instantly evokes a feeling of innocence and vulnerability. It features big, watery eyes that shimmer with emotion, slightly curved eyebrows that slope upward in concern, and a small, trembling mouth—altogether creating a look that’s impossible to resist. This expression mimics the classic “puppy dog eyes” that people often use when they’re begging or trying to charm someone.
Officially named “Face with Pleading Eyes,” the emoji was added to the Unicode Standard in 2018 under Unicode 11.0 and assigned the code point U+1F97A. Since its release, the emoji has grown in popularity across various platforms and is now used globally to express emotions such as desperation, hope, affection, or remorse.
While “pleading face emoji” is the most commonly used term, people also refer to it by several other names depending on the context and emotion they wish to convey. It’s often called the begging emoji due to its pleading nature. In humorous or exaggerated scenarios, it’s nicknamed the crybaby emoji, and on platforms like TikTok, where it features in countless emotional or dramatic content pieces, it has gained fame as the TikTok cry emoji. Some internet users even refer to it as the big eye emoji meme, because its enlarged eyes are a key part of its exaggerated expression.
This emoji also overlaps emotionally with others like the watery eyes emoji, guilty emoji, and embarrassed emoji, making it highly adaptable. It can represent a request for forgiveness, an expression of cute helplessness, or even a dramatic overreaction in a meme or text.
In short, the pleading face emoji is a powerful emotional tool in the emoji lexicon. Whether you’re sending it to ask for a favor, express guilt, or simply to melt someone’s heart, this emoji never fails to deliver the feels.
The Rise of the Pleading Face on Social Media
The pleading face emoji didn't just appear out of nowhere—it exploded onto the social media scene and quickly became one of the most beloved icons across platforms. As emotional expression through texting grew more complex, users began to favor emojis that could pack deep feelings into a small symbol. The pleading face met that need perfectly, combining innocence, vulnerability, and drama into a single glance.
On TikTok, the emoji became synonymous with the dramatic and emotional content that drives viral trends. Users began pairing the pleading face emoji with emotional audio clips, teary-eyed videos, and exaggerated expressions of sadness or affection. This earned it nicknames like the TikTok cry emoji and even made it part of meme culture, especially in emotional or faux-dramatic skits. Whether you’re begging your crush for attention or playfully asking your mom for food, the pleading face just fits.
Its popularity spread rapidly to Twitter/X, Instagram, and Snapchat, where it became the default emoji for expressing cuteness, guilt, or a dramatic appeal. Often combined with phrases like “pls,” “but I’m baby,” or “just one more episode,” the emoji added a level of emotional depth to everyday messages.
Part of its charm lies in its memeability. The pleading face quickly became a part of big eye emoji memes, usually featuring exaggerated cartoon or anime eyes to imitate the emoji’s iconic look. Memes showing characters with watery, oversized eyes and trembling expressions became a staple on humor pages and meme accounts. Users began drawing their own versions of the emoji or animating it for TikToks, further cementing it in internet culture.
The emoji is also frequently used in combination with others to intensify its emotional tone—like pairing it with the face with tears of joy emoji for ironic begging, or with the drool emoji in memes to show dramatic longing or obsession.
Its ability to convey multiple emotions—ranging from innocent request to playful guilt—has made it stand out even among popular icons like the guilty emoji, embarrassed emoji, and crybaby emoji. This flexibility ensures that it’s not only trending now, but likely to remain relevant in our emoji vocabulary for years to come.
The rise of the pleading face highlights a shift in how we communicate digitally: we want to feel understood, even in a text. And with this tiny face of emotion, we often do.