The Women Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone emoji (👭🏽) shows two women holding hands, both with a medium skin tone. It stands for female friendship, sisterhood, solidarity, and romantic connection between women. People use it to show closeness, mutual support, and togetherness, and to represent themselves or their relationships with a matching skin tone.
What Does the Women Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone Emoji Mean?
The emoji means closeness between two women, whether that closeness is friendship, family bonding, or romance.
The image is simple: two women side by side, hands joined. That gesture carries a lot of meaning across cultures, from walking with a best friend to showing affection for a partner. Because the emoji does not specify the relationship, the surrounding words decide the tone.
The medium skin tone modifier (U+1F3FD) adds a personal touch. It lets people choose a tone that reflects their own identity or the people they are talking about, instead of defaulting to the generic yellow version.
Common meanings at a glance
- Female friendship and sisterhood
- Support, solidarity, and standing together
- Romantic love between women, including lesbian relationships
- Unity, connection, and care
- Inclusive representation of diverse women
How Is This Emoji Built, and What Are Its Technical Details?
This emoji is a two-part sequence: the base character U+1F46D followed by the skin tone modifier U+1F3FD.
The base character is Women Holding Hands (👭), and the modifier applies the medium skin tone on top of it. The sequence belongs to the People & Body category and was added in Unicode 12.0 and Emoji 12.0. Its official Unicode name is WOMEN HOLDING HANDS: MEDIUM SKIN TONE, and its shortcode is :women_holding_hands_medium_skin_tone:.
One detail worth knowing: Unicode 12 introduced a wider set of skin tone combinations for couples and holding-hands emojis. That update is why you can now choose tones for the figures in many pairs, though this particular version applies a single medium tone to the pair. If you want the default yellow version, you can find it on the Women Holding Hands emoji page.
What Does 👭🏽 Mean in Texting and on Social Media?
In texting and on social media, 👭🏽 most often signals friendship between women, a girls' day out, or support for a friend.
Friends send it to say "we are a team," to caption photos together, or to thank someone who showed up for them. Because it shows a shared skin tone, it also works as a visual stand-in for the sender and a close friend who share that tone.
Friendship captions
- Brunch with my favorite person 👭🏽
- Ten years of friendship and still laughing at the same jokes 👭🏽
Romantic and LGBTQ+ context
The emoji is also widely used for relationships between women. Paired with a rainbow or heart, it reads clearly as romantic. A caption like Two years with my girlfriend 👭🏽🏳️🌈 leaves little room for doubt, while the same emoji next to the word "bestie" reads as platonic.
How Do You Use the Women Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone Emoji?
Use it when you want to express connection between women and want the skin tone to match the people involved.
Match the emoji to the message. If you are celebrating a friend's birthday, placing it at the end of a sentence adds warmth. If you are announcing a relationship, put it near the news so the meaning is obvious. In group chats, it works as a quick way to say "I am with you."
- Proud of you, girl. I am always in your corner 👭🏽
- Going to the concert with my sister 👭🏽🎶
- Supporting women-owned businesses this weekend 👭🏽
Keep in mind that the emoji shows two people with the same tone. If you and your friend have different skin tones, some people prefer the default yellow version, which feels neutral, or another tone variant that fits better.
Which Emojis Pair Well With 👭🏽?
The best pairings add emotion or context: hearts, rainbows, sparkles, and celebration emojis.
Adding a second emoji clarifies whether you mean friendship or romance. A heart and rainbow lean romantic or supportive of LGBTQ+ pride. Sparkles and party emojis suit celebrations. A thumbs up works for encouragement, and you can find that on the Thumbs Up emoji page.
- 👭🏽❤️ for affection, whether platonic or romantic
- 👭🏽🏳️🌈 for LGBTQ+ pride and relationships
- 👭🏽✨ for a special day together
- 👭🏽🎉 for celebrating a friend
- 👭🏽👍 for support and encouragement
If you want more ideas for expressive combinations, the trending emojis page shows what people are using right now, and the Emoji Translator can turn a sentence into emojis for you.
How Does the Women Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone Emoji Look on Different Platforms?
Every major platform draws the pair in its own style, but the core idea stays the same: two women holding hands.
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, WhatsApp, and Twitter each use their own artwork, so clothing, hairstyles, and proportions vary. The medium skin tone is applied to both figures on every platform that supports it.
Support begins with specific versions of each system:
- Apple: iOS 13.2+ and macOS 10.15.1+
- Google: Android 10.0+
- Microsoft: Windows 10 version 1903+
- Samsung: One UI 2.0+
- WhatsApp: 2.20+
- Twitter: Twemoji 12.1+
On older devices that do not support Emoji 12.0, the sequence may fall back to the base emoji followed by a separate colored square showing the skin tone, instead of a single combined image. If a friend sees something odd, an out-of-date operating system is the likely reason.
How Is It Different From Similar Emojis?
It differs from the standard version because it has a specific skin tone, and from other holding-hands emojis because both people are women.
The generic 👭 uses a yellow default tone and works for anyone. The medium skin tone version is a deliberate choice for representation. Compared with the Man and Woman Holding Hands or Men Holding Hands emojis, this one is specific to two women, which matters for friendships and relationships you want to represent accurately.
It also differs from emojis like the Woman Shrugging: Light Skin Tone or the Woman Facepalming: Light Skin Tone, which show a single woman expressing an attitude. Those convey reactions, while 👭🏽 conveys a relationship between two people.
When Should You Avoid the Women Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone Emoji?
Avoid it when the relationship or tone would be unclear, or when the skin tone does not fit the people you mean.
Because the emoji can read as either platonic or romantic, using it without context can cause confusion. If you are sending it to a coworker or acquaintance, a different emoji may avoid any unintended romantic reading. Pair it with a clarifying word if there is any doubt.
Be thoughtful about representation as well. Using a skin tone that does not match you or the people you are describing can feel off to some readers. When in doubt, the default yellow version is a neutral alternative.
In very formal messages, such as business emails, emojis in general are best used sparingly. A warm message to a colleague you know well is fine, but a formal report is not the place for it.
How Do You Copy and Paste the Women Holding Hands: Medium Skin Tone Emoji?
You can copy it with one click on this page and paste it anywhere that accepts text.
Click the emoji button above to copy 👭🏽 to your clipboard, then paste it into your message, post, document, or bio. It works the same way in text messages, social media apps, email, and chat tools. If it appears as a box or as two separate symbols, update your device to a version that supports Emoji 12.0.
For more options in the same family, browse the full People & Body emoji category, which includes gestures, people, and relationships. Whatever you are celebrating, from a friendship to a partnership, 👭🏽 is a quick way to say it.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!