Study Reveals Most Popular American Texting Habits

Language Log 2025-04-21

[This is a guest post by Randoh Sallihall]

Analysis of Google search data for 2025 reveals the most searched for texting abbreviations in America.

Study reveals most searched for text abbreviations in America:

FAFO (254 000 searches) – F–k around and find out.
SMH (166 000 searches) – Shake my head.
PMO (101 000 searches) – Put me on.
OTP (95 000 searches) – One true pairing.
TBH (93 000 searches) – To be honest.
ATP (85 000 searches) – At this point.
TS (79 000 searches) – Talk soon.
WYF (76 000 searches) – Where are you from.
NFS (75 000 searches) – New friends.

ASL (65 000 searches) – As hell.
POV (63 000 searches) – Point of view.
WYLL (59 000 searches) – What you look like.
FS (58 000 searches) – For sure.
FML (56 000 searches) – F–k my life.
DW (55 000 searches) – Don't worry.
HMU (54 000 searches) – Hit me up.
ISO (53 000 searches) – In search of.
WSG (50 000 searches) – What's good?
IMO (48 000 searches)- In my opinion.
MK (45 000 searches) – Mmm, okay.
ETA (40 000 searches) – Estimated time of arrival.
ICL (37 000 searches) – I Can't Lie.
MB (37 000 searches) – My bad.
STG (29 000 searches) – Swear to god.
ION (28 000 searches) – In other media.
PFP (27 000 searches) – Picture for proof.
NTM (27000 searches) – Nothing much.
DTM (26 000 searches) – Doing too much.
TTM (26 000 searches)- Talk to me.
MBN (25 000 searches) – Must be nice.
ETC (24 000 searches) – And the rest.
BTW (23 000 searches) – By the way.
WFH (21 000 searches) – Work from home.
GMFU (20 000 searches) – Got me f—-d up.
NGL (19000 searches) – Not gonna lie.
SYBAU (19 000 searches) – Shut your b—h ass up.
BTA (17 000 searches) – But then again.
SB (17 000 searches) – Somebody.
HBD (16 000 searches) – Happy Birthday.
PMG (15 000 searches) – Oh my god.
HY (15 000 searches) – Hell yeah.
TMB (11 000 searches) – Text me back.
WYS (10 000 searches) – Whatever you say.
GNG (9 000 searches)- Gang (close friends or family).
IKTR (8 000 searches) – I know that's right.
IKR (7 000 searches) – I know, right?
ARD (6 000 searches) – Alright.
IFG (5 500 searches) – I f—–g guess.
HN (4 000 searches) – Hell no.
TTH (3 000 searches) – Trying too hard.

A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings: "Text abbreviations are the secret language of the internet. You could even call them an integral part of social media culture. Snappy, always changing and hard to understand. Texting abbreviations is all about saving time and appearing cool. Keeping up to date with the newest trending abbreviations is no easy task. Old meanings can change while new abbreviations are created. A recent study found that abbreviations might not be as cool as people think. Using abbreviations makes the sender seem less sincere. This also leads to lower engagement and shorter responses. There is nothing wrong with using abbreviations in casual conversations with friends and family. However it is best do draw a line for professional conversations. Context matters."

Research was conducted by word finding experts at Unscramblerer.com.

We analyzed 01.01.2025 -05.03.2025 search data from Google Trends for terms related to text abbreviations.

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the top trending text abbreviations and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. Americas most popular text abbreviations can be discovered in Google Trends through the keyword variations of 'meaning text'. Abbreviations are used most often on social media and texting. The 2025 top trending abbreviations are the least understood. People have to search for their meaning (example 'TBH meaning text'). Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like 'text meaning' or 'means in text'(example 'PMO meaning in text') and similar keyword combinations(example 'what does SMH mean in text'). We added up 100 search variations of top text abbreviations.

[VHM: Some of this text slang (e.g., IDK ["I don't know"]) even seeps onto Language Log from time to time.]

Selected readings