Smileys & Emotion · Emoji 14.0
🥹Face Holding Back Tears Emoji
Basically, it means they're feeling super emotional and a little bit overwhelmed with happiness. It's like a gentle, watery smile.
The 🥹 emoji shows a face with tears, but holding them back.
- Unicode
- U+1F979
- Released
- 2021
- Shortcode
- :face_
holding_ back_ tears: - Skin tones
- No
- Popularity
- #57 most used
Added in Emoji 14.0. On phones older than iOS 16 / Android 13 it arrives as an empty box — the character exists, the artwork does not.
01 — Meaning
What does the 🥹 Face Holding Back Tears emoji mean?
People search for it under a lot of different names. All of these point at the same character.
People also look for it as cry emoji, holding back tears emoji, sad cry emoji, embarrassed emoji, gratitude emoji, please emoji.
02 — Platforms
Face Holding Back Tears emoji on iPhone, Android, WhatsApp and X
The character you send is always U+1F979. The picture is not: it is redrawn by each system, and the designs below number 9.
See the whole set the way each system draws it — iPhone emojis, Android emojis, WhatsApp emojis and Discord emojis.
03 — Copy & codes
Face Holding Back Tears emoji copy and paste
Everything here is the same character in different notation — including the shortcode chat apps know it by, :face_holding_back_tears:.
All emoji copy and paste →In your code
Pick the notation your language wants. They all resolve to the face holding back tears, code point U+1F979.
04 — How to type
How to type the 🥹 Face Holding Back Tears emoji
Where the emoji key lives on each system — and the codes for when there is no picker at all.
05 — Download
Face Holding Back Tears emoji PNG and SVG
Transparent PNG and SVG for thumbnails, decks and design files — one file per vendor, which makes 9. Artwork belongs to whoever drew it, so check the licence before commercial use.
Emoji PNG library →
Apple
Google
Twitter / X
Facebook
Microsoft
06 — Combinations
Face Holding Back Tears emoji combinations
Ready-made combos built around face holding back tears for bios, captions and comments. Tap to copy.
All combinations →Want two emojis fused into one sticker instead of set side by side? Emoji Kitchen does that with 🥹, and there are more ready-made pairs in emoji combinations and aesthetic emoji combos.
08 — In conversation
What 🥹 means from a girl or a guy
Who sent the face holding back tears and what came before it change the reading more than the emoji itself does.
09 — Apps
What 🥹 means on TikTok, WhatsApp and Discord
One code point, several readings — where the face holding back tears lands changes how it is taken.
11 — Difference
🥹 vs 👭 — what is the difference?
Two emojis that get mixed up constantly. They are different characters with different names.
Unicode name: Face Holding Back Tears
Code: U+1F979 · added 2021
Shortcode: :face_holding_back_tears:
Basically, it means they're feeling super emotional and a little bit overwhelmed with happiness.
Unicode name: Women Holding Hands
Code: U+1F46D · added 2015
Shortcode: :two_women_holding_hands:
Generally, it means “two friends” or “female friends.”
12 — History
Where the 🥹 Face Holding Back Tears emoji came from
When it was approved, which release it landed in, and how long phones have had it.
Same character every time — U+1F979 never changed. Only the drawing did, and only because each vendor redraws its own set. Someone on an older phone still sees the older picture.
Face Holding Back Tears was approved as U+1F979 and shipped in Emoji 14.0 (2021). Phones usually get new artwork about a year after approval, in a system update.
Every vendor keeps its own artwork, so 🥹 is redrawn by Apple, Google, Twitter / X, Facebook, OpenMoji, Samsung, Microsoft, WhatsApp, JoyPixels. The character you send never changes — only the picture does.
13 — FAQ