What does this or that emoji mean? Many people ask this question, because it is not always clear what the emoticon means. Emoji with two hands together, for example. What does this emoticon mean? Are these two people giving each other five? Or is it someone praying? If you sometimes doubt what a certain emoji means, then we have prepared a few tips to help you get an answer to this question.
How to find out what a particular emoji means on your Mac
There are several ways to find out the meaning of emoji on your Mac.
The first way is pretty simple:
Step 1: In the Messages app on your Mac, click on the emoji to open the Emoji keyboard.
Step 2: Find the emoticon you want to know the meaning of.
Step 3: Hover your cursor over an Emoji and after a couple of seconds, you will see a pop-up hint describing this emoji.
Second way:
Step 1: In any application, go to Menu Bar> Edit> 'Emoji Icons and Symbols' (or 'Special Characters' on some OS versions OS X) This will bring up a window with all the symbols present on your computer .
Step 2: Select Emoji from the left sidebar.
Step 3: Select the Emoji you want to know the meaning of and tap on it.
Step 4: On the right side, you will be presented with the meaning of this Emoji.
Find out what emoji means with iPhone
While on Mac you can easily find out what emoji means, then on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch it is more difficult to do it. We are going to use the function to pronounce aloud the name of the smiley.
Note that for some reason, this feature is not available on iOS 9, but it still works on older versions iOS. It is not known why Apple removed this feature, it may have happened by mistake and they will return it in the future.
Step 1: On your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, go to Settings> General> Accessibility> Speech and turn on Speech.
Step 2: Create a new letter or note, and insert the Emoji you want to know the meaning of.
Step 3: Highlight emoticons in the menu, select “Speak”. Siri will say the name and designation of the smiley.
Use the emoji dictionary app
There are multiple apps in App Store that have descriptions of emoji emoticons, but one of the simplest and most free apps is the Emoji Dictionary. Download the app and see the meaning of your favorite emoji. Unfortunately, this app hasn't been updated since January 2015, so the list of emoji is a little outdated. For example, it does not include the most recent emoji found in iOS 9.1.
Learn about emoji symbols at Emojipedia
Emojipedia is the Wikipedia of the emoji world. The site contains all emojis and detailed information about each of them. This is by far the most detailed information about Emoji symbols.
Do you know other ways to find out the meaning of a certain Emoji? If you know, then share them in the comments.