The index pointing up emoji ☝️ is the digital equivalent of raising your hand in class—polite, a little eager, and very “I have a point.” It flags something important above, says “one moment,” or drops a gentle “as previously stated” when you’re quoting receipts from earlier in the thread. People use it to mean number one, to nudge followers to read the caption or the line above, and to do that internet thing where you point at floating text in Reels and TikToks. It can also serve spicy pedant energy—pair it with “actually…” for instant know‑it‑all vibes.
On Apple/iOS, it appears as a right hand in the default yellow (or any skin tone), shown from the back of the hand with the index finger straight up, the other three fingers curled in, and the thumb tucked across—clean shading, rounded edges, unmistakable silhouette. It’s the one you recognize instantly in Stories where creators literally point at on‑screen captions or “link above” pointers. In texts, it can be flirty‑awkward (“uh, question for you ☝️”), dramatically authoritative (“note this, your honor ☝️”), or just classic “wait, give me a sec.” Sports fans drop it to mean “we’re number one,” and café regulars basically use it to order a single espresso—vibes only.
Sarcastically, it’s great for footnote humor—quote something, then add ☝️ to say “refer to exhibit A.” It also doubles as a polite interruption in group chats, the Zoom-raise-hand without the button. When you want to steer eyeballs upward in a long post, this is your neon arrow without the neon.
Definition
I'm number 1! Winning! Unicode note: No.1 iEmoji old name: Small hand pointing up. A different hand this time pointing up at something. It does not have a white glove so it has nothing to do with Michael Jackson.
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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.
The code generated for this emoji was changed slightly in iOS 7 / OSX 10.9 (a variation selector was added) advising the OS to display character emoji style instead of black and white text when available. We don't mind Apple, thank you! We just love our emojis! [Sources 11438-emoji-var.pdf 13.7 Variation Selectors (unicode.org)]
Emoji General Information
Twitter Emoji Popularity (Rank)
267 of 2393
Apple/iOS Picture
Google Android Picture
Google Hangouts Picture
Twitter.com Picture
LG Emoji Picture
Samsung Emoji Picture
Phantom Open Emoji Picture
Not created yet
ASCII Conversion
"Short Code" Name
:point_up:
Keywords
Previous Names:
White Up Pointing Index
Hand with Up Pointing Index Finger
