Study Reveals Most Popular American Texting Habits
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[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
- "New frontiers in acronymity" (6/4/22)
- "PUA, part 2" (3/27/25)
- "(an)arthrous abbreviations" (9/17/07)
Victor Mair said,
April 21, 2025 @ 8:38 am
Texting abbreviations and slang that are so common few people would feel the need to look them up (e.g., LOL, LMAO, ROTFL) naturally would not appear on this list.
Victor Mair said,
April 21, 2025 @ 8:56 am
How can "PMG" stand for "Oh my god"?
I'm not thinking of "Wǒ de tiān a 我的天啊", which is the Mandarin translational equivalent of "Oh my god".
I often hear Chinese say — out loud — the letters "O M G!"
And they also say "ōmàigà 喔麥尬!"
Robert Coren said,
April 21, 2025 @ 9:21 am
I note that "ETA" for "estimated time of arrival" has been standard in the transportation industry for a long time (like, before the Internet), and also that I've seen the abbreviation frequently on Facebook with the meaning "edited to add".
Ryan said,
April 21, 2025 @ 9:32 am
I wonder whether, with OMG being maybe the most common of these, PMG is such a frequent typo that it pops up both when people make a typo in their initial text and when the person searching makes that typo.
The closely related OMFG doesn't show up here because many consider it sacrilege, inappropriate to use. A common substitution is to use the term "the Tetragrammaton".
cameron said,
April 21, 2025 @ 9:35 am
"PMG" is a jocular pseudo-typo. swapping p for o is a joke. see "pwned"
Ross Presser said,
April 21, 2025 @ 9:49 am
ASL *used* to mean "Age/Sex/Location", going back to the days of AOL chat rooms it was common to demand this info of new people joining the chat. I have never seen ASL used to signify "As Hell".
Barbara Phillips Long said,
April 21, 2025 @ 12:13 pm
SMH, #2, is usually “shaking my head” in the glosses I have seen. It isn’t a command to others, it is an action the writer is taking.
DTM, #28, surprised me. I would have assumed it meant “diump the motherf*cker” in the Dan Savage tradition, not the innocuous and mundane “doing too much.”
The actual Dan Savage coinage is DTMFA, which means “dump the motherf*cker already”:
https://www.thestranger.com/savage-love/2018/02/20/25837088/savage-love-letter-of-the-day-dtmfa-dtmfa-dtmfa
Xtifr said,
April 21, 2025 @ 1:52 pm
I think the most surprising entry to me is ETC. Which I don't think I've ever seen in all-caps. But it's almost certainly the oldest on the list. And commonly used on LL as well.