Symbol for friendship

Hands that meet

A handshake 🤝 greets someone as an equal and often seals an agreement. It is commonly said to have begun as a way of showing that you held no weapon, but that origin cannot be proven; what is certain is that clasped hands appear on ancient Greek and Roman carvings as a sign of alliance. The hug 🫂, added in 2020, is warmer, and many people use it when words are not enough. More gestures are in the hand symbols collection.

Why the yellow heart means friendship

Each heart colour has picked up an informal meaning online. Red is romantic, while yellow suggests warmth, happiness and friendship, much like the yellow rose in the Victorian language of flowers. Snapchat reinforced this by showing a yellow heart next to your top best friend. None of this is official, so a friend will not misread a red heart, but 💛 says “friend” without implying romance. All the heart colours are in our heart symbols collection.

The Claddagh and other traditions

The Irish Claddagh ring shows two hands holding a crowned heart: the hands stand for friendship, the heart for love and the crown for loyalty. It is a jewellery design, not a character, so in text people approximate it with 🤝💛 or similar pairs. Friendship bracelets, woven and swapped by children and at concerts, play a similar role without any single symbol.

友 (friend)

友 means friend. It is read yǒu in Chinese, as in 朋友 (péngyou), and tomo in Japanese, as in 友達 (tomodachi). Ancient forms show two right hands, an image of people helping each other. Like any real character, it should be used knowing it is a word.

Friendship shades into love and family, and the symbols overlap; see the symbols for love and the symbols for family.