Where it comes from
It is a sideways Western emoticon: tilt your head left and the colon is the eyes while 3 is a curvy mouth, like a cat's snout or pouting lips. Japanese kaomoji draw the same mouth upright with ω.
When to use it
Use it to sound cute, to tease gently, or to end a message on a soft note. It is very casual and sometimes read as childish or flirty, so skip it at work.
Examples
- I saved you the last slice :3
- Guess who finished their homework early :3
Variants to copy
What it is made of
Every character in the face with its Unicode code point — handy if one shows up as a box on a friend's phone.
:
U+003Acolon3
U+0033digit three