Folded hands 🙏

How to read it

🙏 is U+1F64F, named PERSON WITH FOLDED HANDS in the Unicode Standard and folded hands in Unicode’s emoji lists. It was approved in Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and came from the Japanese carriers’ emoji: Unicode’s mapping file lists it under KDDI and SoftBank. Unicode’s emoji data labels it E0.6, the label Unicode’s emoji standard gives the emoji added in Unicode 6.0 in 2010, which include those from the Japanese carriers’ sets. Unicode’s own chart note says it “can indicate sorrow or regret” and “can also indicate pleading, praying, bowing, or thanking”. Emojipedia says it means please or thank you in Japanese culture, that prayer is a common alternative use, and that it can show a respectful greeting such as the Hindu namaste or the Buddhist añjali mudra. Dictionary.com’s entry gives gratitude, spirituality and hopefulness, and pleading or wishing for an outcome. In Japanese and some other Asian cultures, it says, pressing the hands together means please, thank you and I’m sorry; those meanings carried over to the West, where the emoji is more strongly read as prayer.

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Is it a high five?

Not by its name or Unicode’s chart note, which say folded hands and pleading, praying, bowing or thanking; yet Unicode’s own keyword list for it includes “high” and “five”. The argument is old. NPR’s Kat Chow reported in August 2014 that a Philadelphia TV station had reignited it, with an anchor claiming the emoji was intended as a high five. She pointed out that an iPhone reads it aloud as “hands folded in prayer”, and that people high-five with opposite hands, thumbs crossed. Dictionary.com says the high-five reading comes from designs that show only two hands, and that those who see prayer point to the thumbs, on the same side for both hands. Emojipedia notes that iOS once drew a yellow burst of light behind the hands, and Android a blob character with closed eyes. The sources disagree on how common the high five is. Dictionary.com’s 2022 guide says 🙏 has been commonly used as a millennial high five, while Gen Z uses it for “thank you” or for really hoping for something. Emojipedia says it is rarely used as a high five, although emoji keyboard searches often suggest it for one.

Thanks instead of a thumbs-up

In Google’s Gboard data, analysed by The New York Times, 🙏 was the fifth most used emoji worldwide in 2025, up from sixth. The Deseret News, reporting the analysis, says teenagers tend to use 🙏 where Gen X uses 👍, and ThePrint that the thumbs-up is becoming less popular while folded hands is used more.

Look-alikes

🙌 raising hands is two hands held up, for celebration, hooray and praise in Unicode’s keywords. 👏 clapping hands is the applause gesture.