Kissing Cat

It can be either; the conversation decides.

A kiss is a kiss, and 😽 carries the same affection as 😚 or 😘. Many people find the cat version softer and more playful, so it often turns up in a goodnight to a partner, a thank-you to a close friend or a reply to a pet photo. From someone you are dating it reads as a cute kiss; from someone you barely know, look at the words around it before deciding it means more.

Where do the cat faces come from?

From Japanese mobile phones, where emoji took off.

Emoji spread on Japanese phones from 1999. The carrier au by KDDI had a set of cat faces matched to human expressions, and this kissing cat was among them by 2003. When Unicode added the Japanese carriers' emoji in 2010 so messages would arrive intact between networks, the nine cats 😺😸😹😻😼😽🙀😿😾 came in with the human faces. In the old mapping tables 😽 stands opposite 😚, as 😻 does opposite 😍 and 😹 opposite 😂.

Unicode has no separate winking cat or cat blowing a heart, so 😽 is the only cat kiss. Designs vary by platform: most draw a yellow or orange cat with closed eyes, some add blushing cheeks, and at least one set draws a wink.