Think of any horror movie you may have watched; there’s always that scene where someone walks into a room and they have discovered a grisly murder. There face and eventual scream mirrors this face perfectly. This is the emoji equivalent of utter shock and terror, a face that has witnessed true fear. Therefore it can be used in two ways; firstly, as a way to highlight your fear and secondly as a reaction to a really shocking piece of news. The emoji can also be used to react to news and to portray a sense of shock and horror. Let’s say that in your town there is this amazing pizza place that do these legendary next level calzones. You hear from a friend that you will never be able to eat these calzones again because the place has suddenly and inexplicably closed down. A perfect response would be something like: WTF 😱

The Face Screaming in Fear was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 and eventually added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015. The face joined the likes of Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes and Face Blowing A Kiss.