The Men Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone, Medium-dark Skin Tone emoji (👨🏽🤝👨🏾) shows two men clasping hands, one with a medium skin tone and one with a medium-dark skin tone. It represents male couples, close friendship, solidarity, and togetherness, and it is widely used to express love, partnership, and inclusive support.
What Does the Men Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone, Medium-dark Skin Tone Emoji Mean?
This emoji means two men connected by a handshake-style hold, and it most often stands for a male couple, a deep friendship, or a shared bond between two people.
The image pairs a man with a medium skin tone (👨🏽) and a man with a medium-dark skin tone (👨🏾) joined by a clasping hands symbol (🤝) in the middle. Because each person can be given a different tone, the emoji lets you show a specific pair of people rather than a generic couple. That is the main reason people choose it over the default yellow version.
Its meaning shifts slightly with context. In a romantic setting it reads as a gay couple or male partners. Among friends it can signal loyalty, brotherhood, or a pact. In community and advocacy settings it signals unity, representation, and support for LGBTQ+ people.
Core meanings at a glance
- Romantic partnership: two men in a relationship, engaged, or married.
- Friendship and brotherhood: a tight bond between close male friends.
- Solidarity: standing together, mutual support, shared purpose.
- Representation: showing a specific pair of skin tones that reflect real people.
Why Does This Emoji Have Two Different Skin Tones?
This emoji has two skin tones because it belongs to the family of couple and pair emojis that Unicode updated so each person can be shown with an individual skin tone.
It was added in Unicode 12.1 and Emoji 12.1, the release that introduced mixed skin tone options for couples and for people holding hands. Before that update, a pair of people generally had to share one tone or use the default. Now the two figures can match different people, which makes the emoji more faithful to real relationships and friendships.
Here the left figure uses the medium skin tone modifier (U+1F3FD) and the right figure uses the medium-dark modifier (U+1F3FE). Swapping the order of tones changes which man appears on which side, so the version with medium on the left is a separate emoji from the one with medium-dark on the left.
How Do You Use the Men Holding Hands Emoji in Texting and on Social Media?
You use it to talk about a male couple, a close friendship, or support for LGBTQ+ people, and the tone usually comes across as warm and affectionate.
In messages, it works well as a quick visual replacement for words like "my boyfriend and me," "my husband and I," or "me and my best friend." On social media it often accompanies photos of couples, anniversary posts, pride month captions, and posts celebrating friendships.
Here are realistic examples of how people write with it:
- Three years with my favorite person 👨🏽🤝👨🏾 Happy anniversary, love.
- Brothers from day one, still hand in hand 👨🏽🤝👨🏾
- Proud to stand with every couple who loves out loud 👨🏽🤝👨🏾
Pairing it with a short caption keeps the meaning clear, especially when you want a friendship reading rather than a romantic one.
How Is It Different From the Default Men Holding Hands Emoji?
The difference is that this version specifies two skin tones, while the default men holding hands emoji uses a neutral yellow tone for both figures.
The default version is useful when you do not want to point to any particular skin tone or when your platform does not display tone variations well. The tone-specific version is better when you want the emoji to reflect real people, such as a couple you are tagging or a friendship you are celebrating. Both carry the same meaning, so the choice is about representation, not about changing the message.
This emoji also sits in the same family as other tone-specific pairs, so people who regularly use one pair often build a small set of personalized emojis for themselves and their loved ones. You can browse related figures in the People & Body emoji category.
How Does This Emoji Look on Different Platforms?
The emoji looks similar in concept everywhere, two men holding hands with distinct skin tones, but each platform draws the figures, clothing, and hand grip in its own style.
Support begins with the Unicode 12.1 era of operating systems, so older devices may not render it properly. Based on the platform data for this emoji, these are the minimum versions:
- Apple: iOS 13.2 and later, macOS 10.15.1 and later.
- Google: Android 10.0 and later.
- Microsoft: Windows 10 version 1903 and later.
- Samsung: One UI 2.0 and later.
- WhatsApp: version 2.20 and later.
- Twitter: Twemoji 12.1 and later.
If the person you are messaging uses an older system, they may see two separate man emojis with a handshake between them, or a box with a question mark. This happens because the emoji is built from several characters joined together.
What Is Inside the Emoji Code?
The emoji is a sequence of seven Unicode codepoints joined with zero width joiners: U+1F468, U+1F3FD, U+200D, U+1F91D, U+200D, U+1F468, U+1F3FE.
In plain terms, that reads as man, medium skin tone, joiner, handshake, joiner, man, medium-dark skin tone. Platforms that understand the full sequence draw it as one image. Platforms that do not will show the separate pieces. This is a normal behavior for ZWJ sequences and explains why newer emojis sometimes look broken on outdated software.
The shortcode for this emoji is :men_holding_hands_medium_skin_tone_medium_dark_skin_tone:, and it is listed under the People & Body category.
Which Emojis Pair Well With the Men Holding Hands Emoji?
Emojis that pair well with it are hearts, rainbows, and celebratory symbols for couples, plus friendly reactions for friendship posts.
- Hearts and rainbows: add romantic or pride context to a post.
- A thumbs up: a friendly approval, see the Thumbs Up emoji.
- Eyes: playful attention when sharing news about a couple, see the Eyes emoji.
- Sparkles and confetti: anniversaries, engagements, and milestones.
For a quick caption, combine one pair emoji with a single supporting emoji instead of stacking many. Too many symbols can blur the message and make a heartfelt post feel cluttered.
When Should You Avoid This Emoji?
Avoid it when you are unsure how a recipient will read it, or when you would be outing someone or implying a relationship they have not shared publicly.
Because the emoji commonly signals a male couple, using it about two people who have not described themselves that way can create awkwardness. In group chats, work channels, or family threads, think about whether the reading you intend is the one others will take. If you only mean friendship, add words like "best friends" or "brothers" so nobody guesses wrong.
It is also worth pausing before using it as a joke or mockery. The emoji represents real relationships, and treating it as a punchline can come across as disrespectful.
Can You Use It in Work or Formal Messages?
You can use it in work messages when the context is friendly and inclusive, such as pride month greetings or team celebrations, but it is not needed in strictly formal writing.
In a company chat, it fits posts that celebrate diversity or recognize a colleague's milestone. In formal emails, contracts, or official notices, plain text is usually the better choice. Match the emoji to the culture of the workplace, and when in doubt, follow how your colleagues already communicate.
How Do You Copy and Paste the Men Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone, Medium-dark Skin Tone Emoji?
You can copy this emoji with one click on this page and paste it into any message, post, or document.
Click the copy button near the emoji, then paste it with Ctrl+V on Windows or Command+V on a Mac, or press and hold in a text field on a phone and choose paste. Because it is made of several characters, always copy it as a whole so the joiners stay intact. If you want to turn a sentence into emojis, try the Emoji Translator, and to see what others are using right now, check the trending emojis page.
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