People & Body · Emoji 12.0
🧏Deaf Person Emoji
Generally, the 🧏 emoji means a deaf person or someone who has difficulty hearing. It's used to highlight that a conversation might require adjustments or that the person uses sign language.
The 🧏 emoji represents a person with hearing difficulties.
- Unicode
- U+1F9CF
- Released
- 2019
- Shortcode
- :deaf_
person: - Skin tones
- Yes
01 — Meaning
What does the 🧏 Deaf Person emoji mean?
People search for it under a lot of different names. All of these point at the same character.
02 — Platforms
Deaf Person emoji on iPhone, Android, WhatsApp and X
Same code on both ends, different drawing on each screen — here is the deaf person as 9 vendors ship it.
See the whole set the way each system draws it — iPhone emojis, Android emojis, WhatsApp emojis and Discord emojis.
03 — Skin tones
Deaf Person emoji skin tones
🧏 supports all five Fitzpatrick skin tone modifiers. Each one is a separate character sequence — tap any to copy it.
04 — Copy & codes
Deaf Person emoji copy and paste
Everything here is the same character in different notation — including the shortcode chat apps know it by, :deaf_person:.
All emoji copy and paste →In your code
Different notation, one result: whichever escape you paste, what comes out is U+1F9CF.
05 — How to type
How to type the 🧏 Deaf Person emoji
Where the emoji key lives on each system — and the codes for when there is no picker at all.
06 — Download
Deaf Person emoji PNG and SVG
Grab the deaf person as transparent PNG or SVG. Each system ships its own drawing, and the licence stays with the vendor, all 9 of them.
Emoji PNG library →
Apple
Google
Twitter / X
Facebook
Microsoft
07 — Combinations
Deaf Person emoji combinations
Ready-made combos built around deaf person for bios, captions and comments. Tap to copy.
All combinations →Want two emojis fused into one sticker instead of set side by side? Emoji Kitchen does that for every pair Google has drawn, and there are more ready-made pairs in emoji combinations and aesthetic emoji combos.
08 — In conversation
What 🧏 means from a girl or a guy
Same emoji, different intent depending on who sent it and what came before.
09 — Around the world
What 🧏 means in other countries
Added specifically to represent the Deaf community and sign language, so it reads as identity, not sarcasm.
Genuine representation of deafness or sign-language use, not a figure of speech.
Using it to mock “you’re not listening” misreads a real identity marker as a joke.
Before you send it: Best reserved for actual accessibility or Deaf-community contexts rather than as a sarcastic jab.
10 — Apps
What 🧏 means on TikTok, WhatsApp and Discord
One code point, several readings — where the deaf person lands changes how it is taken.
12 — Difference
🧏 vs 🙇 — what is the difference?
Two emojis that get mixed up constantly. They are different characters with different names.
Unicode name: Deaf Person
Code: U+1F9CF · added 2019
Shortcode: :deaf_person:
Generally, the 🧏 emoji means a deaf person or someone who has difficulty hearing.
Unicode name: Person Bowing
Code: U+1F647 · added 2010
Shortcode: :bow:
Generally, 🙇 means “I’m sorry” or “please forgive me.”
13 — History
Where the 🧏 Deaf Person emoji came from
It arrived with the 12.0 release of the standard, which dates the deaf person to 2019.
Same character every time — U+1F9CF never changed. Only the drawing did, and only because each vendor redraws its own set. Someone on an older phone still sees the older picture.
Deaf Person was approved as U+1F9CF and shipped in Emoji 12.0 (2019). Phones usually get new artwork about a year after approval, in a system update.
Every vendor keeps its own artwork, so 🧏 is redrawn by Apple, Google, Twitter / X, Facebook, OpenMoji, Samsung, Microsoft, WhatsApp, JoyPixels. The character you send never changes — only the picture does.
14 — FAQ