🤲 is the palms up together emoji: two open hands held side by side, facing up. It arrived with Unicode 10 and is often nicknamed “dua hands,” “cupped hands” or “open hands praying.” Unlike 🙏, where the palms press together, the open palms here suggest receiving something, offering something, or waiting for a blessing, so the mood is closer to “bless me” or “give me” than to “thank you.”
How it’s used
- Asking for a blessing: “Wishing everyone a peaceful, healthy year 🤲”
- Making dua: “Please keep my mom in your prayers 🤲”
- Handing something over: “Here’s the full spreadsheet, take it 🤲”
- Playful begging: “Someone please tell me the show gets renewed 🤲”
- Empty-handed jokes: “My bank account on the 28th 🤲”
Where 🙏 mostly means thanks, please or prayer in general, 🤲 paints a specific scene: hands held out to receive. It feels more earnest than a single outstretched 🫴, and more reverent than 👐, which is open hands facing the viewer.
Korea, Japan and the English-speaking world
In English, the strongest association is religious. Many Muslim users use 🤲 for dua, the supplication made with open hands, and it appears around Ramadan, Eid and Friday greetings. Christians sometimes use it for receiving a blessing. Everyone else tends to use it as a looser stand-in for praying hands, or in jokes like “gimme,” “I need this,” or “take my money.”
In Korean chats it usually reads as “may good fortune come to me,” and it shows up in New Year greetings and exam-luck messages next to 🙏. Because Korean has the idiom “to spread one’s hands” meaning to ask for money, it also turns up in teasing about allowances and paydays.
In Japan, 🙏 handles nearly every request, thanks and apology, so 🤲 is rare. When it does appear it is usually literal: receiving something respectfully in both hands, scooping water, or praying hard to a god. That fits the Japanese habit of accepting a business card or gift with two hands.
Where it gets misread
- It is not interchangeable with 🙏. Pressed palms are 🙏; open palms are 🤲.
- When a Muslim friend posts 🤲 it may be a sincere prayer. Replying with a joke or a sarcastic remark can come across as disrespectful.
- Sent to a boss or client (“please raise my budget 🤲”), it can read as begging. Keep it for friends.
- It is not 👐, which shows palms facing outward and usually means “ta-da,” “welcome” or a hug.
Design differences by platform
Nearly every platform draws two upturned hands side by side, but they differ in how closed the fingers are, how cupped the palms look, and whether wrists or sleeves are shown. Apple’s hands are more realistic and shaded, Google’s Noto hands are simple and rounded, and Microsoft’s Fluent version leans on soft three-dimensional shading. Samsung’s is similar in layout with different tones and outlines. As with most hand emojis, skin tone variants are available, and the default yellow is the safest choice for general messages.
