Cracking Face Emoji

Cracking Face (🫫, U+1FAEB) is a candidate emoji drafted for Emoji 18.0, the emoji companion to Unicode 18.0, expected to finalize in September 2026. It depicts a face mid-expression with a visible crack, read by most coverage as emotional strain or "breaking" while still smiling — a fit for the Gen-Z "I'm fine" meme, where someone looks composed on the outside while overwhelmed underneath. Its codepoint has a specific history: U+1FAEB was originally reserved for a different proposed emoji, "Face With Squinting Eyes," before the Unicode Emoji Standard & Research Working Group recommended replacing it with Cracking Face in January 2026. As of this writing, Unicode's own pipeline documentation still lists that codepoint under its original name, flagged as pending a name-change resolution — meaning even the "Cracking Face" name isn't fully locked in yet, despite widespread press coverage already using it. Because it's still a draft, no operating system, keyboard, or font currently renders it; expect a blank box or placeholder glyph until Emoji 18.0 is approved and platforms ship support, likely sometime in 2027.