The raising hands emoji is the internet’s standing ovation: two palms up, confetti vibes, and pure “we did it!” energy. It shouts praise hands, hype, and hallelujah for everything from acing a test to finally fixing the Wi‑Fi. People drop it to cheer friends on, celebrate sports wins, or punctuate a dramatic “LET’S GOOO” like a stadium wave in text form. It also works sarcastically—like when the group chat shows up on time for once, or the app finally stops glitching—aka the minimal-effort parade.
On Apple/iOS, it’s a front-facing pair of golden-yellow hands, fingers together, thumbs slightly out, raised high with festive blue and orange confetti triangles and shine lines floating above. The shading is glossy and soft, giving the palms a rounded, almost sticker-like pop, with clean cuffs at the wrists. It reads like a mini celebration burst, instantly recognizable in timelines and stories. Often paired with fire, sparkles, and party popper emojis, it channels church choir “amen,” game-day euphoria, and Friday-at-5 freedom in one tidy, cheering gesture. Skin tone modifiers are supported, and the vibe stays universal: hype, gratitude, and good news, loud and clear.
Definition
Two hands raised up in the air in celebration or excitement. Woot! Raising both hands in the air when others are near (particularly team mates) is a way gesture "give me ten." A high five occurs when two people slap a single hand. A high ten, commonly called "give me ten", is when two people raise both hands and slap them together. Occurs when something very positive has occurred and is typically observed when watching sports or other games played by people.
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
This emoji was part of the proprietary / non-standardized emoji set first introduced by Japanese carriers like Softbank. These emojis became part of the Apple iPhone starting in iOS 2.2 as an unlockable feature on handsets sold in English speaking countries.
In iOS 5 / OSX 10.7, the underlying code that the Apple OS generates for this emoji was changed.
Emoji General Information
Twitter Emoji Popularity (Rank)
42 of 2393
Apple/iOS Picture
Google Android Picture
Google Hangouts Picture
Twitter.com Picture
LG Emoji Picture
Samsung Emoji Picture
Phantom Open Emoji Picture
ASCII Conversion
"Short Code" Name
:raised_hands:
Keywords
Winning, Woot, Yay, Banzai
Previous Names:
Person Raising Both Hands in Celebration
Unicode Category Information
Unicode Category
Emoticons
Unicode Range
1F600–1F64F
Unicode Subcategory
Gesture Symbols
Editorial Comment
Raising both hands. Banzai! Winning. (wow, lots of winning emojis we have!) iEmoji old name: Chinese Finger Trip Got My Thumbs. (wow, terrible guess lol) This is an image of the well known trick the Chinese have mastered putting your thumbs in a device where it is painful to remove them without patience or help.
Proposed Unicode Information & Notes
Unicode Category
Faces and Smiley's
Unicode Subcategory
Gesture Symbols
Names & Annotations
PERSON RAISING BOTH HANDS IN CELEBRATION Old name: PERSON RAISING BOTH HANDS IN CHEERS = banzai! Temporary Notes: banzai, raising both hands
