Skin tone emoji: light, medium and dark skin modifiers
Every hand, face-with-body and person emoji comes in five skin tones. This page explains the modifiers, shows how to choose one, and lets you copy the toned versions people search for most.
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The five skin tone modifiers
Skin tones arrived in Emoji 2.0 in 2015. They are not separate emoji: a tone is a modifier character that follows a base emoji and changes its colour. There are five, based on the Fitzpatrick dermatology scale: light (types 1β2), medium-light (3), medium (4), medium-dark (5) and dark (6). The modifiers have their own code points, U+1F3FB to U+1F3FF, and a π followed by U+1F3FF is what people mean by a βblack thumbs up emojiβ or, for the lighter end, a βlightskin emojiβ.
| Emoji | Name | Use it for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| thumbs up: light skin toneU+1F44D U+1F3FB | Light skin tone (U+1F3FB) | Fitzpatrick 1β2 | |
| thumbs up: medium-light skin toneU+1F44D U+1F3FC | Medium-light skin tone (U+1F3FC) | Fitzpatrick 3 | |
| thumbs up: medium skin toneU+1F44D U+1F3FD | Medium skin tone (U+1F3FD) | Fitzpatrick 4 | |
| thumbs up: medium-dark skin toneU+1F44D U+1F3FE | Medium-dark skin tone (U+1F3FE) | Fitzpatrick 5 | |
| thumbs up: dark skin toneU+1F44D U+1F3FF | Dark skin tone (U+1F3FF) | Fitzpatrick 6 |
The plain π with no modifier is the default yellow. Unicode chose yellow deliberately so that the untoned emoji reads as βno particular skinβ, and every platform keeps it. Sending the yellow version is never wrong; it is simply the neutral form.
Which emoji take a skin tone
Hands and gestures (π π π β π€ π ), body parts (π π 𦡠π¦Ά), single people (πΆ π§ π© π¨ π§) and most people-doing-things (π π§ π π§βπ») all take the five tones. Faces do not: the yellow smileys are cartoon faces, not portraits, so ππΏ is not a valid sequence and will show as two separate characters. Animals, objects and symbols are untoned for the same reason.
Two-person emoji are the special case. The handshake π€ can carry a different tone on each hand since Emoji 14.0 (2021), for example π«±π»βπ«²π½, and couples and people holding hands can mix tones too. Family emoji lost their tone options in Emoji 15.1, when Unicode simplified them to silhouettes so that they display the same everywhere.
How to choose a skin tone on your phone
- iPhone and iPad: open the emoji keyboard, touch and hold a hand or person emoji, then slide to the tone you want. iOS remembers the choice for that emoji until you change it.
- Android (Gboard): long-press the emoji; a row of tones appears above it. Gboard can also show the tone picker every time if you switch off βremember skin toneβ in its settings.
- Samsung Keyboard: long-press the emoji and tap the tone. Samsung adds a small triangle to emoji that have tones.
- Slack, Discord, WhatsApp Web: the emoji picker has a global skin tone selector, usually a small hand icon in the corner of the panel.
- Anywhere else: copy the toned emoji from this page. The character carries its modifier with it, so it pastes with the same tone on any device.
Why a toned emoji sometimes shows as two symbols
If the receiving app is old or its font lacks the modifier, you may see the yellow emoji followed by a coloured square: that square is the modifier drawn on its own. Every major platform has supported the five tones since 2015, so this mostly happens in legacy software and some embedded systems. A toned emoji also counts as two code points, which matters for character limits and for typing emoji by code.
Black praying hands and dark skin feet
The folded hands emoji π, often used for prayer, gratitude or a high five, takes all five skin tone modifiers. The dark skin tone version ππΏ is commonly called βblack praying handsβ β it is the same gesture with a dark skin tone applied. Body parts like the foot emoji π¦Ά also have tone options, so π¦ΆπΏ is the dark skin tone foot.
The yellow smiley faces, such as π, do not have skin tone versions. There is no βblack smiling face emojiβ because those faces are cartoon characters, not portraits.
Skin tone with hair colour
Some people emoji have additional features like hair colour, and these can be combined with skin tones. The person with blond hair emoji π± supports skin modifiers, so π±πΏ is the version with dark skin. Hair colour and skin tone are separate modifiers, so you can also have π±π» for light skin.
The medium-light skin tone modifier is the character πΌ, one of the five tones. It can be added to many hand, body part and person emoji, for example ππΌ gives a medium-light thumbs up.
Questions people ask
What is the lightskin emoji?
Any hand or person emoji with the light skin tone modifier, U+1F3FB, such as ππ» or ππ». It is not a separate emoji; it is the base emoji plus a tone character.
Can you change the skin tone of a face emoji?
No. The yellow faces (π π π) do not accept skin tone modifiers. Only hands, body parts and people emoji do.
Why is the default emoji skin yellow?
Unicode and the platforms chose a non-human yellow so the plain emoji does not represent any real skin colour. The five modifiers exist for people who want a specific tone.
Is there a medium skin tone emoji?
Yes, U+1F3FD is the medium skin tone modifier. ππ½, ππ½ and ππ½ are the medium-tone versions of the most used hands.
Is there a black smiling face emoji?
No. To represent a Black person, use a person emoji with the dark skin tone modifier, such as π¨πΏ or π©πΏ, or a hand gesture like ππΏ.
What does πΌ mean?
πΌ is the medium-light skin tone modifier, one of five skin tone characters. It appears after a base emoji to give it a medium-light skin colour.
Can I get a blond hair emoji with dark skin?
Yes. The person with blond hair emoji π± accepts skin tone modifiers, so π±πΏ shows dark skin with blond hair.
About this guide
Written and maintained by the Emoji Directory editorial team, without ads or sponsorship. Meanings describe how the emoji is commonly used in public posts and messages, not an official definition. Names, code points, versions, keywords and translations come from the Unicode Emoji 18.0 and CLDR data; shortcodes from the gemoji project. Facts were checked against the sources listed above. Last reviewed . Spotted a mistake or a new usage? Tell us, or read how the directory is made.
