handshake: medium-light skin tone
Unicode: 1F91D 1F3FC
Description
A handshake emoji where two hands are clasped together. Thehand is the color of skin.
Group:
People & Body > hands
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Represents agreement, partnership, greeting, farewell, or reconciliation.
Backstory
The handshake emoji was introduced in Unicode 8.0 (2015). It is a universal gesture of greeting and goodwill, as well as a sign of sealing a deal or reaching an agreement. The skin tone modifier was added to allow for more personalized representation.
Usage Examples
- Confirming an agreement: 'It's a deal! 🤝'
- Greeting someone: 'Nice to meet you! 🤝'
- Expressing partnership: 'Let's work together on this project 🤝'
- Reconciliation: 'Glad we could sort things out 🤝'
- Farewell: 'Until next time! 🤝'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Commonly used for formal and informal greetings, pacts, and expressions of friendship or business agreements.
East Asian culture:
Similar usage, but handshakes might be less common than bowing in some formal contexts. Still understood as a symbol of agreement or welcome.
Middle East culture:
Can signify agreement or respect, but gender segregation norms might apply to who shakes hands with whom.