🤝 Handshake

🤝 Handshake is one of the two-handed gestures in Unicode's People & Body group. In practice it comes up around agreement, deal, hand and meeting. The keyword list continues with shake.

🤝 works in messages, comments, captions and profile names. On SmileyZone it is filed under Gestures and Hands. The character has been part of the standard since 2016 (Emoji 3.0). Its code point is U+1F91D. The emoji also comes in 5 skin tone variants, listed in the sidebar.

• 🤝 on its own already flags the topic: agreement.
• 🤝🙏 – Confirming an agreement and saying thanks at the same time.
• Often seen near 🤲 Palms up Together, 🤲🏻 Palms up Together: Light Skin Tone and 🤝🏻 Handshake: Light Skin Tone.

The handshake as a token of agreement is attested in Europe since antiquity – the open right hand showed that no weapon was carried. Many cultures use something else: the bow in Japan, the wai in Thailand, a hand on the heart across parts of the Middle East.

Worth knowing: in conservative religious settings men and women do not touch in greeting. And across much of Asia and the Arab world the left hand is taboo for a handshake.

• 🤝🙏 – Confirming an agreement and saying thanks at the same time.
• 🤝👐 – Handshake and Open Hands
• 🤝🤲 – Handshake plus Palms up Together
• 🤝🫶 – Handshake and Heart Hands
• 🤝🙌 – Handshake with Raising Hands

Easy to mix up with 🤲 Palms up Together, 🤲🏻 Palms up Together: Light Skin Tone or 🤝🏻 Handshake: Light Skin Tone. They sit in the same Unicode subgroup and look similar at small sizes, so it is worth checking the name before sending.