Woman And Man Holding Hands Emoji
U+1F46B:couple:Skin tonesAbout Woman And Man Holding Hands 👫
Woman And Man Holding Hands () is part of the People & Body group in Unicode. Added in Unicode E0.6. Type on GitHub and Slack to use it. Click copy above to grab it, paste it anywhere.
Works in iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, and every app that supports Unicode. Pick a skin tone above to customize it.
Often associated with bae, bestie, bff, and 9 more keywords.
Meaning varies across cultures, see cultural notes below.
Scroll down for the full story: meaning, trends, combos, and more.
How it looks
What does it mean?
A woman and a man holding hands. The original couple emoji, representing romantic partnerships, friendship, solidarity, or any connection between a man and a woman.
Added in Unicode 6.0 (2010) under the name "Man and Woman Holding Hands." It was the first holding-hands emoji — the same-sex variants (👬 and 👭) didn't arrive until 2012. In 2019, this emoji gained skin tone modifier support, allowing interracial couple representation with different skin tones for each person.
The emoji's history reflects changing attitudes toward relationship representation. When it launched, it was the only couple emoji, implicitly defaulting to heterosexual. The addition of 👬 (two men) and 👭 (two women) in Unicode 6.1 acknowledged that couples aren't all the same. The 2020 gender-neutral 🧑🤝🧑 (people holding hands) completed the set. Now 👫 is one option among many rather than the default.
Used for heterosexual couples, mixed-gender friendships, and any man-woman pair walking together. Common in relationship posts, anniversary celebrations, date night photos, and Valentine's Day content. Also used to show solidarity or companionship without romantic implications.
The interracial skin tone combinations (e.g., 👫🏻🏾) have become significant for representing diverse couples since their 2019 addition.
A woman and man holding hands. Represents romantic couples, friendship, and companionship. The first couple emoji (2010), now one of four holding-hands variants.
What it means from...
If your crush sends 👫, they're either referring to a couple they saw, hinting at wanting to be a couple, or expressing the idea of togetherness. In early dating, it can be aspirational.
Between partners, it represents them as a couple. Used in 'us' messages, anniversary posts, and couple photos.
Between male and female friends, it can mean friendship without romantic implications. Context from the relationship clarifies.
Can represent parents or any couple in the family.
Rare in professional contexts unless discussing personal relationships casually.
On social media: couple content, relationship posts, Valentine's Day.
Flirty or friendly?
Context-dependent. Between people who are dating, it's clearly romantic. Between friends, it's platonic companionship. The holding hands gesture is intimate but not exclusively romantic.
Emoji combos
Origin story
The man-and-woman-holding-hands emoji was the first couple emoji in Unicode, added in 2010. For two years, it was the only holding-hands option, making it the implicit default for all couples. The same-sex variants followed in 2012, and the gender-neutral version in 2019.
The 2019 addition of interracial skin tone combinations was a significant moment. Previously, couples could only be represented as the same skin tone. The new modifier system allowed each person to have a different Fitzpatrick skin tone, creating 25 possible skin tone combinations for each couple type. This was celebrated as a step toward representing the diversity of real relationships.
Added in Unicode 6.0 (2010) as "Man and Woman Holding Hands." Single code point: . Same-sex variants 👬 and 👭 added in Unicode 6.1 (2012). Skin tone modifiers for individual people added in Emoji 12.0 (2019). Gender-neutral 🧑🤝🧑 added in Emoji 12.0 (2019).
Around the world
Public displays of affection (including holding hands) vary dramatically by culture. In Western countries, holding hands is common and casual. In many Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures, public affection between partners is more private, though men holding hands with male friends is common and non-romantic. In East Asia, public hand-holding has become more common among younger generations.
The heterosexual-couple framing of this emoji is the cultural default in most societies, which is both its strength (widely understood) and its limitation (reinforces a norm that excludes other relationships).
Popularity ranking
Often confused with
Do's and don'ts
- ✓Use for romantic and platonic man-woman pairs
- ✓Use skin tone variants for interracial couple representation
No. Holding hands can be platonic (friends, family) or romantic. Context determines the meaning.
Caption ideas
Aesthetic sets
Fun facts
- •👫 was Unicode's first couple emoji (2010). Same-sex variants 👬 and 👭 arrived in 2012. Gender-neutral 🧑🤝🧑 in 2019.
- •Since 2019, each person can have a different skin tone, creating 25 possible combinations.
- •Unlike most couple emojis, 👫 is a single code point (), not a ZWJ sequence. The skin tone variants are ZWJ sequences though.
Trivia
For developers
- •Single code point: . One of the few couple emojis that's not a ZWJ sequence.
- •Skin tone variants use ZWJ: + skin tone + + + + + skin tone.
- •25 skin tone combinations available (5 × 5 Fitzpatrick tones).
- •Related: 👬 (, men), 👭 (, women), 🧑🤝🧑 (gender-neutral ZWJ).
See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.
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