Heart Emoji Meanings: Every Colour Explained

Heart emoji meanings mostly come down to colour. Red is the classic heart of love and romance, yellow is the one sources single out for friendship, white is commonly used when someone has died, and black, despite its colour, is most often a love heart. Most other colours show love or support for something in that colour: a team, a cause, a place or a fandom.

This part of our emoji meanings dictionary covers every emoji Unicode files under “heart”, plus the heart suit.

Table of Contents

• Heart emoji meanings at a glance
• What does each heart colour mean?
• What do the hearts that aren’t about colour mean?
• Which hearts are for friends, and which for partners?
• When did Unicode add each heart colour?
• Which hearts are easy to misread?
• Frequently Asked Questions

Heart emoji meanings at a glance

Nearly every heart means love; the colour or detail says which kind. The table gives each heart’s usual meaning, the year Unicode added it and notes on the ones that can mislead.

What does each heart colour mean?

Each colour adds a shade to love, from romance (red) to friendship (yellow) to support for whatever shares the colour. Six have their own page.

Red heart

Love and romance, plus everyday thanks and support. Its 1993 origins and how it differs from the heart suit are on the red heart emoji meaning page.

Pink heart

Love, friendship and warmth. It only arrived in 2022, so it is easily confused with older hearts that several platforms draw in pink; the pink heart emoji meaning guide untangles them.

Orange heart

Love or support for orange things, such as autumn or a team in orange, often in a row with other colours. More on the orange heart emoji meaning page.

Yellow heart

The friendship heart: used for friendship and liking, often where a red heart would feel too romantic, and for happiness, positivity and hope. Read what the yellow heart emoji means.

Green heart

Nature, environmental causes, Ireland and teams in green; Emojipedia adds the K-pop group NCT. See what a green heart emoji means, including when it hints at envy.

Blue heart

Support or admiration for anything blue: a team, a school, a cause. Emojipedia notes brands often use it as a neutral heart colour.

Light blue heart

Emojipedia describes it as a heart for people, places, groups or things linked to light blue, often used with other coloured hearts. Its Unicode proposal expected it for national colours (naming Argentina, Botswana and Kazakhstan), regional flags, sports teams and identity flags. Checked 3 October 2026 against Unicode's emoji-test.txt (Emoji 18.0), Emojipedia and Unicode proposal L2/21-202 (Light Blue Heart)

Purple heart

Love or support for anything purple, and widely used by fans of the K-pop group BTS, whose fandom adopted the colour. It can also mean the U.S. military’s Purple Heart medal, or Purple Day for epilepsy on March 26.

Brown heart

Love, affection and close bonds, and widely used in conversations about racial identity and racial justice. The brown heart emoji meaning page covers both.

Black heart

Most often a love heart, despite the colour. It also carries sorrow, a moody or “emo” feeling and dark humour, and it is used for black things such as clothing.

Grey heart

Emojipedia describes it as a heart for people, places, groups or things linked to grey or silver. Its Unicode proposal expected it for regional flags, sports teams in silver or grey and identity flags such as the asexual flag. Checked 3 October 2026 against Unicode's emoji-test.txt (Emoji 18.0), Emojipedia and Unicode proposal L2/21-201 (Gray Heart)

White heart

Love, support and close bonds, and commonly used when someone has died or for something heavenly or angelic.

What do the hearts that aren’t about colour mean?

They describe a feeling or an occasion rather than a colour. The beating and growing hearts turn love up, the sparkling heart makes it playful, two hearts says love is in the air, and revolving hearts suggest love that goes both ways. The heart with arrow means falling in love, the heart on fire burning love, the heart with ribbon and love letter suit gifts and valentines, and the broken and mending hearts cover heartbreak and recovery.

The heart exclamation and heart decoration are sometimes used purely as decoration, and the heart suit stands in for the red heart or means card games. Heart-eyes and other faces with hearts are smileys: see emoji faces and what they mean.

Which hearts are for friends, and which for partners?

Our sources don’t rank hearts from friendly to romantic, but some lean one way. Romance and passion: the red heart, the heart with arrow (falling in love), the beating heart and the heart on fire. Friends and family: the yellow heart above all, plus two hearts, the pink heart and the love letter.

Sources describe white and brown as hearts for close bonds, which can cover either. And be wary of “secret” heart-colour codes, like the list a 2025 Netflix drama, Adolescence, put in the spotlight: Emojipedia says such codes have “more in common with digital chain mail than with linguistic truth”, and that colour rarely encodes a secret message.

When did Unicode add each heart colour?

Five colours arrived together in 2010, in Unicode’s first emoji set: red, yellow, green, blue and purple. Black followed in 2016, orange in 2017, brown and white in 2019, and pink, light blue and grey together in 2022. The red heart is older still: a 1993 character that became an emoji in that first set. These are the years Unicode defined each heart, not when phones added them.

Which hearts are easy to misread?

Five hearts carry a second meaning worth checking before you post. The white heart is commonly used when someone has died. The black heart can signal sorrow, and Dictionary.com notes it is used to support the Black Lives Matter movement. The green heart can hint at envy. Emojipedia notes the heart on fire is most often read as desire, and the broken heart often exaggerates a small disappointment.

For the caption around your hearts, try the free Instagram caption generator, or draft your next caption in Outfeed AI.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the different colour hearts mean?

Red is love and romance, yellow friendship, pink love and warmth, and white support, often used when someone has died. Black is usually love but can mean sorrow, and brown stands for close bonds and racial identity. Green, blue, purple, orange, light blue and grey mostly show love or support for things in those colours.

What does the black heart emoji mean?

Despite its colour, the black heart is most often used for love and affection. It can also express sorrow, a moody or ‘emo’ feeling or dark humour, and it is used for black things such as clothing. Dictionary.com notes that it is also used to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

What does the white heart emoji mean?

The white heart shows love, support and close bonds. It is commonly used when someone has died, or for something heavenly or angelic, and for white things such as wedding dresses or snow. Unicode added it in 2019, together with the brown heart.

Which heart emoji is the most romantic?

No official ranking exists, but sources tie a few hearts to romance: the red heart is the classic love heart, the heart with arrow stands for falling in love, and the beating heart is a more intense red heart for passionate love. Emojipedia notes the heart on fire is most often read as desire.