Love-you Gesture Emoji

A hand with the thumb, index finger, and pinky extended while the middle and ring fingers are folded down. This is the American Sign Language (ASL) sign for "I love you", combining the letters I, L, and Y into a single handshape. It dates back to 1905 in deaf schools and entered mainstream culture decades before the emoji existed.

🤟 exists because a university professor fought for it. C.M. Hall, co-project director of DeafBlind interpreting at Western Oregon University, co-authored a Change.org petition asking Unicode to add the ASL "I love you" handshape. Hall argued: "The deaf community being one that is incredibly marginalized and pathologized... when we insert gestures, we are already communicating visually, so why not include the most recognized gesture in ASL?" The petition took two years to succeed. Unicode approved it in 2017.

The emoji is frequently confused with 🤘 (sign of the horns / rock on). The difference is the thumb: 🤟 extends it outward, 🤘 tucks it in. Love vs. rock. The mix-up is so common it generates its own FAQ traffic.

On Instagram and Twitter/X, 🤟 is used casually for "love ya" or general positivity. Most senders don't know it's an ASL sign. They see a hand gesture that looks cool and vaguely affectionate and use it that way. In the deaf community, however, it carries real cultural weight.

On TikTok, deaf creators use 🤟 as a cultural identifier. It appears in deaf awareness content, ASL lesson videos, and posts about deaf identity. The emoji gives deaf TikTokers a visual shorthand that hearing users recognize even without knowing ASL.

Because of its visual similarity to 🤘, 🤟 is sometimes used in rock and concert contexts by people who grabbed the wrong emoji. This casual mix-up occasionally annoys ASL users who see their cultural symbol being mistaken for a music gesture.

The ILY handshape originated in 1905 among deaf schoolchildren who combined the ASL letters I, L, and Y into a single gesture meaning "I love you." It stayed within the deaf community for decades before crossing into mainstream culture through two moments.

The first was Jimmy Carter's 1977 inauguration. During the parade, Carter flashed the ILY sign to a group of deaf supporters on the sidewalk. He'd reportedly learned it from deaf supporters during his campaign in the Midwest. It was the first time a US president used sign language at a public event.

The second was Richard Dawson's sign-off on Family Feud (1976-1985). Dawson ended each episode with the ILY gesture, exposing millions of American households to the sign weekly for nearly a decade.

In 2015, Western Oregon University professor C.M. Hall launched a petition asking Unicode to add the ILY handshape as an emoji. Hall argued that the deaf community, which communicates visually, deserved representation in the visual language of emoji. The petition succeeded, and U+1F91FU+1F91F I LOVE YOU HAND SIGN was approved in Unicode 10.0 in 2017.

There's also a comic book connection. Stan Lee chose the ILY handshape as Spider-Man's web-shooting pose. Lee reportedly said he picked it because it's the sign for love, and he wanted Spider-Man to "apprehend criminals with love."

Approved in Unicode 10.0 (2017) as U+1F91FU+1F91F I LOVE YOU HAND SIGN. Added to Emoji 5.0. Part of the People & Body category, hand-fingers-partial subcategory. CLDR short name: "love-you gesture." Keywords: hand, ILY. Supports skin tone modifiers.

1. 1905ILY handshape originates among deaf schoolchildren combining ASL letters I, L, and Y↗
2. 1977Jimmy Carter flashes ILY sign during inauguration parade, first presidential use of sign language in public
3. 2015Professor C.M. Hall at Western Oregon University launches Change.org petition for ILY emoji↗
4. 2017Approved in Unicode 10.0 as U+1F91F I LOVE YOU HAND SIGN↗

In the United States, the ILY sign is universally recognized as "I love you" thanks to its mainstream adoption through TV, politics, and pop culture. It's one of the few ASL signs that hearing Americans commonly know.

In countries where ASL isn't used (most of the world), the gesture has no inherent meaning. British Sign Language (BSL) uses a different sign for "I love you." The ILY handshape is specifically American and doesn't translate to other sign languages.

The resemblance to 🤘 (horns/rock on) causes cross-cultural confusion. In Mediterranean countries where the horns gesture is a cuckold insult, 🤟 might be misread as offensive even though the thumb position changes the meaning entirely.

• •The ILY handshape dates to 1905 when deaf schoolchildren combined the ASL letters I, L, and Y into one gesture. It's over 120 years old.
• •Jimmy Carter was the first US president to use sign language publicly, flashing the ILY sign to deaf supporters during his 1977 inauguration parade.
• •Stan Lee chose the ILY handshape as Spider-Man's web-shooting pose because it's the sign for love. He wanted Spider-Man to "apprehend criminals with love."
• •Richard Dawson used the ILY sign to sign off every episode of Family Feud from 1976 to 1985, exposing millions of households to ASL for nearly a decade.
• •The emoji exists because of a Change.org petition by Western Oregon University professor C.M. Hall. It took two years of advocacy to convince Unicode to add it.
• •Professional wrestler Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka used the ILY sign during his matches in the 1980s, flashing both hands from the top rope before his finishing move.

• •Confusing 🤟 with 🤘 in deaf community contexts. For hearing people it's a minor mix-up. For deaf people, it's the difference between their cultural identity and a rock music gesture. The distinction matters.
• •Assuming 🤟 means "rock on" and using it at concerts. If you mean rock, use 🤘. If you mean love, use 🤟. The confusion is so common that some people deliberately avoid both.
• •Using 🤟 internationally and expecting it to be understood as "I love you." The ILY sign is specifically ASL. Other sign languages use different gestures for love.

• •Stan Lee chose the ILY handshape as Spider-Man's web-shooting pose. Lee reportedly said he picked it because it's the sign for love, and he wanted Spider-Man to "apprehend criminals with love." The connection between 🤟 and Spider-Man is built into Marvel's DNA.
• •Jimmy Carter flashed the ILY sign during his 1977 inauguration parade to deaf supporters on the sidewalk. He was the first US president to use sign language at a public event. The moment was covered as a milestone for deaf visibility.
• •Richard Dawson signed off every episode of Family Feud (1976-1985) with the ILY gesture, exposing millions of American households to the sign for nearly a decade. It was one of the primary vehicles for the gesture entering mainstream hearing culture.
• •Professor C.M. Hall's Change.org petition to add the ILY emoji gathered enough support to convince Unicode. Western Oregon University celebrated with the headline "I Love You Emoji Began at WOU." It's one of the few emojis with a documented grassroots advocacy story.
• •In Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020 video game), ASL is integrated into gameplay. Miles and his mother communicate using sign language, and the ILY handshape appears as a natural part of their relationship. It was praised as a milestone for sign language representation in gaming.

• •U+1F91FU+1F91F. Supports skin tone modifiers (U+1F91FU+1F91F + U+1F3FBU+1F3FB through U+1F3FFU+1F3FF).
• •On Slack: :love_you_gesture::love_you_gesture: or :i_love_you_hand_sign::i_love_you_hand_sign:. On Discord: :love_you_gesture::love_you_gesture:.
• •If building accessibility features, distinguish clearly between 🤟 (ILY / love) and 🤘 (horns / rock). For deaf users, the distinction carries cultural weight.
• •The emoji's official Unicode name is I LOVE YOU HAND SIGNI LOVE YOU HAND SIGN, not just a generic gesture. Include this in alt text for screen readers.

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