Red Heart Emoji Meaning: The Original Love Heart
Red heart emoji meaning, in one word: love. It is the classic heart of romance, but people also send it to say thanks, show support or share their happiness. And it is older than emoji: the character behind it dates from 1993.
It is one entry in our emoji meanings dictionary; for every other colour, see heart emoji meanings.
Table of Contents
- Red heart emoji meaning: love first, then thanks and support
- Is the red heart the same as the heart suit?
- Why is the red heart officially called Heavy Black Heart?
- Was the red heart ever the most-used emoji?
- Which emoji are built from the red heart?
- Is a red heart flirty or friendly?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Red heart emoji meaning: love first, then thanks and support
The red heart means love, most often romantic love, but it is also an everyday thank-you, a show of support or a burst of happiness, and it can stand in for the word “love” itself. Dictionary.com adds two habits: more hearts can be used for emphasis, and a heart at both the beginning and end of a statement gives it an uplifting, loving tone.
U+2764 U+FE0F · E0.6 (Unicode 6.0), 2010 - Expresses love and romance, the classic meaning of a red heart.
- Also used for non-romantic warmth such as thanks, support or happiness, helped by its place as a default reaction on many messaging apps.
- Stands in for the word "love", as in "I ❤️ NY".
- Dictionary.com notes it can also be used flirtatiously, so context matters.
Is the red heart the same as the heart suit?
No. They look alike, but they are separate characters with different code points. The red heart comes from Unicode’s Dingbats block, a set of typographic ornaments based on ITC Zapf Dingbats, while the heart suit sits with the playing-card suits in the Miscellaneous Symbols block. Both date from Unicode 1.1 in 1993, and both were given emoji status in Unicode’s first emoji set (E0.6, 2010).
| Emoji | Name | Code point(s) | Emoji version (year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ❤️ | red heart | U+2764 U+FE0F | E0.6 (Unicode 6.0) 2010 |
| ♥️ | heart suit | U+2665 U+FE0F | E0.6 (Unicode 6.0) 2010 |
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.
The heart suit is mostly used for love and affection because it looks so much like the red heart, and it can also mean the hearts suit in card games. Each emoji also ends in variation selector-16, the code point that asks for the colourful emoji style; without it, Unicode’s emoji data gives both characters a plain text style by default.
Why is the red heart officially called Heavy Black Heart?
Because that is the formal name Unicode gave the character in 1993, before colour emoji existed. “Black” there means a solid shape, not the colour: the hollow heart suit, for comparison, is named White Heart Suit. Unicode’s stability policy says a character’s name never changes once it is encoded, so Heavy Black Heart is still the official name, and the Dingbats code chart simply notes that it is “displayed with a red color when used in emoji style”.
“Red heart” is its short name in Unicode’s emoji data; the formal name, block and version above come from Unicode’s character database and code charts. Checked against Unicode's emoji-test.txt (Emoji 18.0), Emojipedia and Dictionary.com Emoji Dictionary
Was the red heart ever the most-used emoji?
Close to it. In Unicode’s 2019 frequency data, face with tears of joy and red heart were the two most-used emoji, sharing the top row, with the laughing face listed first. The ranking is a median across several sources that Unicode doesn’t name, and Unicode says the order can differ by region or platform. The page now sits in Unicode’s archive, so treat it as a 2019 snapshot, not a current count.
Checked against Unicode's emoji frequency page (2019 data).
Which emoji are built from the red heart?
Two emoji start with it: heart on fire and mending heart, both added in 2020. Each begins with the red heart’s own two code points, then a zero-width joiner, then fire or a bandage; compare the code points below with the red heart’s above. The red heart also sits inside the kiss and couple-with-heart variants that show particular people. Unicode’s emoji standard says that when a device has no combined design for a sequence, the joiner is ignored and the separate emoji appear side by side.
| Emoji | Name | Code point(s) | Emoji version (year) | Common meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ❤️🔥 | heart on fire | U+2764 U+FE0F U+200D U+1F525 | Emoji 13.1 2020 | Shows passionate, "burning" love or an intense liking for something.Note: Emojipedia notes it is most often read as desire or lust. |
| ❤️🩹 | mending heart | U+2764 U+FE0F U+200D U+1FA79 | Emoji 13.1 2020 | Represents healing or recovery from heartbreak or emotional pain. |
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. Meanings paraphrased from Emojipedia and Dictionary.com Emoji Dictionary, checked ; meanings vary by person and context.
Is a red heart flirty or friendly?
Context decides. Romance is its classic meaning, but partly because many messaging apps offer it as a default reaction, a red heart often means thanks or support with no romance intended. Dictionary.com notes it can also be used flirtatiously, so who sent it, and what it is attached to, tells you more than the heart itself.
Want warmth without the romance? Sources single out the yellow heart for friendship, and describe the brown heart as a heart for close bonds. Posting about a partner instead? Pair the red heart with couple captions for Instagram, write your own with the free Instagram caption generator, or draft your next caption in Outfeed AI.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the red heart emoji always romantic?
No. Romance is its classic meaning, but people also use the red heart for thanks, support and happiness, helped by its place as a default reaction on many messaging apps. Dictionary.com notes it can be used flirtatiously too, so the sender and the context decide how to read it.
What is the difference between the red heart and the heart suit emoji?
They are two separate characters with different code points. Unicode’s formal names for them are Heavy Black Heart, from its Dingbats block, and Black Heart Suit, the playing-card symbol. Both date from Unicode 1.1 in 1993. The heart suit is mostly used for love because it looks so similar, but it can also mean the hearts suit in card games.
What does it mean when someone sends two red hearts?
Usually the same as one heart, with more feeling. Dictionary.com notes that the number of red hearts can vary and that more hearts can be used for emphasis. Neither Emojipedia nor Dictionary.com gives a pair of red hearts a separate meaning, so read it as the same message, emphasised.
When was the red heart emoji added?
The character is older than emoji: Unicode encoded it in version 1.1, in 1993, as Heavy Black Heart. It was given emoji status in Unicode’s first emoji set, labelled E0.6, in 2010. Phones and apps added the emoji on their own schedules, so when you first saw it depends on your device.