Brown Heart Emoji Meaning: Warmth, Identity and Care
Brown heart emoji meaning: love, affection and close bonds, and also a widely used sign of racial identity and support for racial justice, often paired with 🖤 and ✊🏾. So what does the brown heart emoji mean in a particular post? The words around it usually tell you, and the two meaning sources, Emojipedia and Dictionary.com, cover both readings between them.
This page covers how to read it, where it came from, and when a brand should or shouldn’t use it. For other colours, see heart emoji meanings, or browse the full emoji meanings dictionary.
Table of Contents
- Brown Heart Emoji Meaning: Love and Close Bonds
- Does the Brown Heart Mean Race?
- When Was the Brown Heart Added?
- How Often Is the Brown Heart Used?
- Should a Brand Post the Brown Heart?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Brown Heart Emoji Meaning: Love and Close Bonds
At its simplest, the brown heart is a love heart: affection and close bonds. Like the red heart, it can carry love, though neither source casts it as a romance heart. Dictionary.com says that, like other heart emoji, it can convey “love and other strong, affectionate, positive feelings”.
Its entry, with sources and history:
U+1F90E · Emoji 12.0, 2019 - Shows love, affection and close bonds.
- Widely used to discuss racial identity and to support racial justice, often with 🖤 and ✊🏾.
History: Approved in Unicode 12.0 (2019) and added to Emoji 12.0 (2019); Emojipedia notes that in February 2021 it was the least used of the nine coloured hearts.
Does the Brown Heart Mean Race?
Often, yes: the brown heart is widely used to discuss racial identity and to support racial justice. Emojipedia notes it is often used to discuss racial identity. Dictionary.com describes Black Lives Matter supporters using it in usernames and posts to show solidarity with Black people and other people of colour, commonly alongside the black heart and a raised fist in darker skin tones. Its examples include Juneteenth and Black History Month posts.
| Emoji | Name | Code point(s) | Emoji version (year) | Common meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🤎 | brown heart | U+1F90E | Emoji 12.0 2019 | Shows love, affection and close bonds. |
| 🖤 | black heart | U+1F5A4 | Emoji 3.0 2016 | Despite its colour, most often used for love and affection.Note: Dictionary.com notes it is also used to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement. |
| ✊ | raised fist | U+270A | E0.6 (Unicode 6.0) 2010 | A symbol of solidarity, resistance or protest. |
Characters, names, code points and versions from Unicode's emoji-test.txt (Emoji 18.0) and the Emoji Versions table in Unicode Technical Standard #51, checked . The year is when Unicode first defined the emoji, not when phones added it: vendors roll new emoji out later, at different times. E0.6 and E0.7 are Unicode's labels for emoji added in Unicode 6.0 (2010) and Unicode 7.0 (2014), before Emoji 1.0 was released in 2015. Emoji show in your device's own font, so they look different on other phones and computers. Meanings paraphrased from Emojipedia and Dictionary.com Emoji Dictionary, checked ; meanings vary by person and context.
The 🏾 in ✊🏾 is a skin tone modifier: ✊🏾 is two characters, the raised fist followed by the medium-dark skin tone modifier, one of five tones Unicode defines, from light to dark.
Checked against Unicode's emoji-test.txt (Emoji 18.0) and the Emoji Versions table in Unicode Technical Standard #51.
It doesn’t always mean race. Its first documented meaning is love and close bonds, which is the natural reading in a family photo or a note to a friend. In posts about race, Juneteenth or Black History Month, the identity reading is the likely one.
When Was the Brown Heart Added?
Unicode added the brown heart in 2019, together with the white heart 🤍. The table shows both arriving in the same version, which is listed with its release date in Unicode’s emoji standard, UTS #51. Phones rolled them out later, each on its own schedule.
| Emoji | Name | Code point(s) | Emoji version (year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🤎 | brown heart | U+1F90E | Emoji 12.0 2019 |
| 🤍 | white heart | U+1F90D | Emoji 12.0 2019 |
Characters, names, code points and versions from Unicode's emoji-test.txt (Emoji 18.0) and the Emoji Versions table in Unicode Technical Standard #51, checked . The year is when Unicode first defined the emoji, not when phones added it: vendors roll new emoji out later, at different times. Emoji show in your device's own font, so they look different on other phones and computers.
With them, the set of coloured hearts reached nine, the count Emojipedia used two years later.
How Often Is the Brown Heart Used?
Not much, at least in early 2021: Emojipedia noted that as of February 2021, the brown heart was the least used of the nine coloured hearts that existed then. The other eight were ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 🖤 and 🤍. The pink, light blue and grey hearts didn’t exist yet.
Emojipedia’s page still gives that February 2021 date, so treat it as a snapshot, not today’s ranking. Unicode makes a related point in its own frequency notes: newer emoji tend to be used less at first, because it takes time for them to reach every device.
Checked against Unicode's emoji frequency page (2019 data).
Should a Brand Post the Brown Heart?
Yes, when the post is about what the brown heart signals; think twice when you only mean “brown”. Because the identity and solidarity reading is widely documented, readers may see it even when you didn’t intend it.
- Fits: posts about close bonds, such as family or friendship (it pairs well with our family captions), and posts where your brand is genuinely marking a moment like Juneteenth or Black History Month, with something specific to say.
- Think twice: coffee, chocolate, leather or autumn products. Unlike the orange heart, which the sources tie to autumn, the brown heart has no documented autumn or coffee meaning. Emojipedia notes that colour hearts get used for things of their colour, but plain words say “brown” without the ambiguity.
- Skip: using 🤎 or darker skin tone emoji as decoration on posts unrelated to the communities they signal.
Either way, the words carry the message; our guide to writing engaging captions covers that part, and the free Instagram caption generator drafts options by topic and tone.
When the words are right, schedule the post in Outfeed AI.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the brown heart emoji romantic?
It can be. Dictionary.com lists love, affection and close bonds as its first meaning, so between partners it reads as affection, but neither Dictionary.com nor Emojipedia casts it as a romance heart the way the red heart is. It is also widely used to discuss racial identity, so the rest of the message matters.
Does the brown heart always mean race?
No. Its first documented meaning is love, affection and close bonds. The sources also document wide use to discuss racial identity and to support racial justice, often alongside the black heart and a raised fist in a darker skin tone, so in posts about race, Juneteenth or Black History Month that is the likely reading.
What does the brown heart with a black heart mean?
Together they commonly signal support for racial justice. Dictionary.com says the brown heart is often combined with the black heart and the raised fist in darker skin tones, especially in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. On their own, both hearts can also simply mean love.
When was the brown heart emoji added?
Unicode approved the brown heart in Unicode 12.0 in 2019, together with the white heart, and both were added to Emoji 12.0 the same year. Phones added them on their own schedules, so the date they first appeared on a given device varies.
What does the brown heart mean in fall or coffee posts?
Neither Emojipedia nor Dictionary.com lists an autumn or coffee meaning for the brown heart. Emojipedia notes that colour hearts are often used for things associated with their colour, but because the brown heart is also widely used to discuss racial identity, the context decides how it reads.