What friendship symbols mean
๐ค Handshake stands for agreement, teamwork and partnership, so it fits work friends and teammates. ๐ซ People hugging and ๐ซถ heart hands are warmer: comfort, support and love between friends. ๐ Yellow heart is a favorite for friendship, because it feels happy and caring without the romantic meaning of a red heart โค๏ธ.
โ or โพ๏ธ means "friends forever", ๐ means connected, and people holding hands ๐งโ๐คโ๐ง ๐ญ ๐ฌ ๐ซ show a pair of friends. The fist bump ๐ค๐ค is the casual version: "we got this". The handshake arrived in Unicode 9.0 in 2016 and the hug ๐ซ in Unicode 13.0 in 2020, so very old phones may not show them.
Matching symbols and bios for best friends
Best friends often split a symbol between their bios: one person uses โ๏ธ and the other โพ, or one uses ส and the other ษ so the profiles make a butterfly together. Food pairs like ๐ช + ๐ฅ and puzzle pieces ๐งฉ work the same way. Bigger friend groups often pick one shared emoji, like ๐ธ or โญ๏ธ, that everyone adds to their name.
Text hugs are another favorite. Kaomoji like (ใฅ๏ฝกโโฟโฟโ๏ฝก)ใฅ and สใฃโขแดฅโขสใฃ send a hug without any emoji; find more on the kaomoji page. For decorations, see cute symbols and heart symbols.
Friendship Day and how to type the symbols
The United Nations marks the International Day of Friendship on July 30, and many countries, including India, celebrate Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August. Either one is a good excuse to send a ๐ซ or a "โ friends โ" to your favorite people.
To type these on a phone, search the emoji keyboard for "hug", "handshake" or "friends". On Windows, press Windows + ., and on a Mac press Control + Command + Space.