:(

:( is Twitch's classic frown family. Scott Fahlman proposed :-( alongside :-) on a Carnegie Mellon bulletin board on September 19, 1982, using the frown to mark posts that were not jokes. Twitch turns the same sideways construction into a tearful robot face with a downturned mouth.

The Twitch family accepts both :( and :-(. The colon supplies the eyes, the parenthesis forms the frown, and the hyphen in the longer form is the optional nose. By 2013, the frown was also part of TwitchTV's basic emoticon system, with Turbo offering alternate artwork for the same kind of keyboard reaction.

Viewers type :( in Twitch chat to use this emote. :-( belongs to the same artwork family. Viewers use the frown for disappointing results, failed attempts, bad news, painful losses, sad story beats, or any moment where the crying face is a clearer reaction than a celebratory emote.