Sometimes when two people have similar thoughts they can exchange knowing glances. Just the act of looking at each other implies that there's something to be said. For example, if I'm in a meeting and the presenter says something I disagree with, I may turn to look at a nearby friend. If I see that my friend is already looking at me, I know they're likely thinking the same thing.

I use my eyes to communicate silently to my kids and husband all the time.

There are a lot of muscles around your eyes, so you can change what you commuincate with them silently, and more quickly than you can with words.

If my child disobeys me, I'll raise my eyebrows and look at them while thinking, "Would you like to try that again?" Or, "Get it done. " this mostly works because I've said those exact phrases with that exact look on my face multiple times. My kids understand what I'm communicating with my eyes because I've used the same phrase in similar past circumstances with the same look over and over.

My husband is really good at reading my eyes when we talk. If we're looking at each other and he says something I object I can accidentally interrupt his train of thought by squinting my eyes in disagreement, or just raising one eye brow (that usually communicates, "Really? Did you just say that? ").


I think a lot of eyeball communication is a direct result of previous communication with words while using the same eye-looks, so to speak.

I hope that makes sense.

Eye contact is a way to show a person that you're interested on what they're saying. If your eyes are on your phone while someone else is talking to you, obviously their attention is divided between your conversation and their phone. If they're look right at you, they're showing you that you have their full attention and you're not allowing any visual distractions to detract from your conversation.

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Good answers so far, I thought I'd add some as well. A lot of it might also involve subtle head gestures. Rolling ones eyes is a pretty universal symbol for annoyed or "whatever."

One can also point with their eyes. Grab someone's attention then point, by focusing on a location. Artist use this in paintings to draw a viewers attention to a detail.

Someone can cross their eyes to portray sillyness. Or dart their eyes around to pretend to be shifty.

As a blind person I assume you're pretty intimate with the parts of the eye by definition. The pupil expands and contracts (gets larger and smaller) for light, but it also gets smaller and larger based on attraction. When someone is receptive/warm, you can see it in their eyes because the pupil dilates a little. It's usually subconscious but a trained person can observe it. Additionally, people who are paying attention ardently have a habit of switching focus from eye to eye, which creates the effect known at "twinkle" because the light that reflects of wet things like the eye moves a tiny bit. That light is called a catchlight. When someone wants to kiss you, they will almost always look at your lips, which, unless your eating and have reason to believe there's food stuck there, usually gives you a twinkle in your nether regions.

A very important fact to keep in mind is that our brain's are hardwired to recognize faces and facial expressions. Sighted people spend so much time looking at each other's faces, that they can recognize the slightest changes in expression. Knowing this, one can control the facial muscles to create certain expressions, known to convey a specific meaning.
People also develop a rapport with one another. Close friends usually have eye, head or hand gestures that they both assign a specific meaning. Also, when communicating with a close friend, one knows more or less what they're thinking and can assign more precise meanings to expressions.

It's not like a full conversation. But when you experience an emotion, a lot of times your eyes have a specific movement. For instance, when people are scared or shocked, their eyes open wide. When we are annoyed, we roll our eyes. When you're caught doing something wrong/embarrassing, we can look around in the shape of a rainbow (that's hard to explain lol) in all different directions jokingly. And when we are joking with someone, you can wink. When we're angry, your eyes can squint and look very intense at someone, like "daggers" across the room.

So, sometimes when there's no other information other than looking at someone's eyes across the room, you can get an idea of what's happening. If I look over at my sister and she's talking to a stranger at a party and she makes a wide eyed, shocked face while the stranger isn't looking, I will know I need to go over and rescue her from that conversation. If someone winks at me across the room, I will know they're flirting with me.

So it's not truly a full conversation with eyes, but it's communicating small little things with eyes.

When a person directs their gaze directly into the eyes of another person, it shows interest. The exact message varies by culure. Among blacks, it can mean "let's fight". Among gay guys, it can mean "let's hook up."

Meanwhile there's a lot of other stuff going on with the face, that can communicate anger or sterness or that's funny or thank you, etc. Primates probably worked a lot of this out before verbal speech was perfected. I'm a lot more confortable talking to people in person than on the phone, because I get these facial cues that inform the conversation.

My boss says I talk more with my eyes than I do with my mouth, I get it a lot actually, sometimes I wonder if what I’m thinking about is really that readable through my eyes

I think that people understand each other similar to how one understands a facial expression. You can see emotions on a person's face, including their eyes.

Eye contact can be engaged because one can get a general idea where another person is looking by seeing their eyes. Your eyes essentially "point" a direction when looking that way. If you think of eyes as basketballs that have arrows going through them. The arrows are like the pupils. You can get a general idea where someone is looking by seeing where their pupils are located. You can get a general idea what someone is looking at by looking at their pupils. Eye contact is when your eyes are locked into someone's eyes and they look in yours. It signifies that you have their full attention and they have yours.

Eyes are enormously expressive parts of the face. People can recognize most emotions from just seeing the eyes of someone from a similar culture. Eyes express emotions voluntarily and involuntary (i.e. pupillary response), and evoke an empathetic response. ($1)

 

Eye contact, however, is hugely cultural. As a personal example, I've found many people from India convey more through their eyes, while people from Japan and Germany may be culturally encouraged to hide their expressions (though being born inside the culture undoubtedly makes a big difference).

 

There are, however, universals in facial recognition in general, worth looking up. Pupillary response, for instance, is generally a reliable physiological indicator. Wide eyes are alert, wide pupils frightened and/or adjusted to the dark, while narrow pupils convey focus, and also with narrowed eyes, pleasure and pain. To me, it also seems significant how people often close their eyes when they experience overwhelming emotions (although this, too, is often an easily read indicator to others).

 

Personally, although I am sighted and notice these things, I am inclined to notice and focus on audio more, when available. While people may be reluctant to start talking, you can often get a pretty instant read of emotion from voice tone that is similar in information to what you can pick up with facial recognition.

It's giving someone "a look" during an exchange at a social gathering. It's an eye contact thing, but the same result can be garnered by a quick squeeze of the hand of the person with whom you'd share "the look".

It's a body language cue that lets both parties know they're on the same page

Body language. It's the knowledge of how one reacts to a situation and integration of the movement.

It's like hearing someone come in by their foot steps and smell and be able to recognize.