Yes, No & OK Emoji

There is no emoji called "yes", but 👍 Thumbs Up has done the job since the first emoji keyboards and became the internet's default yes when Facebook turned it into the Like button in 2009. It means agreed, got it, fine by me, and as a reaction it closes a conversation without a word. That silence is also its problem: since about 2022 many younger people read a lone 👍 from a colleague or a parent as curt or passive-aggressive, so a 👍🙂 or 👍 with a short word lands softer.

✅ Check Mark Button is the yes of lists and plans: done, confirmed, approved. ✔️ Check Mark says the same in a darker, quieter tick, and ☑️ Check Box with Check is the ticked box from a form. 🙂‍↕️ Nodding Face (officially Head Shaking Vertically) is the newest yes, added in Emoji 15.1 in 2023; it shows a face actually nodding, which makes it the answer when a thumbs up feels too flat. 🫡 Saluting Face is "yes sir" and "on it", 💯 is yes with emphasis, 🤝 is a deal, 🙋 is "yes, me!" when someone asks who is in, and 🙌 is a yes you are excited about.

No emoji: 👎, ❌, 🙂‍↔️, 🙅 and the stop signs

👎 Thumbs Down is the plain no, the downvote and the "didn't like it". ❌ Cross Mark is sharper: wrong, cancelled, not happening. 🙂‍↔️ Head Shaking Horizontally arrived together with the nodding face in 2023 and is the gentlest no of the set, a face slowly shaking its head; it suits "nope" and "I can't believe it" alike. 🙅 Person Gesturing No crosses both forearms into an X, the Japanese batsu gesture, and reads as a firm "no way" or "not allowed".

For rules rather than answers, use the signs: 🚫 Prohibited and ⛔ No Entry mean banned or off limits, 🛑 Stop Sign and ✋ Raised Hand mean stop right there, and the pushing hands 🫷 🫸 (Emoji 15.0, 2022) mean "back off" or "hold on". 🆖 NG Button is the squared cousin of 🆗: NG stands for no good, a Japanese term for a rejected take or a thing that will not do. ❎ Cross Mark Button is a cross on a green square and is used for "close" or "not applicable" more than for a flat refusal.

OK emoji meaning: 👌, 🆗, 🙆 and when OK is not okay

👌 OK Hand means fine, perfect, nailed it; the ring of thumb and index finger is the Western "A-OK". 🆗 OK Button is the word itself in a blue box, which makes it the clearest written okay across languages. 🙆 Person Gesturing OK holds both arms over the head in a circle, the Japanese maru gesture for "correct" or "all good"; 🙆 and 🙅 are a matched pair, circle for yes and cross for no, and both came into Unicode 6.0 in 2010 from Japanese phones.

Tone matters with okay. "ok 👍" is agreement, "ok 🙂" with a 🙂 Slightly Smiling Face can read as polite but not thrilled, and "ok 🙃" with the 🙃 Upside-Down Face usually means the opposite of okay. In Japan 👌 can also mean money, and in a few countries the OK ring is an insult, so with people you do not know well, 🆗 or a plain 👍 is safer. 🉑 Japanese Acceptable Button (可, "acceptable") and 🈴 Japanese Passing Grade Button (合格, "passed") are okay in kanji form, and 💮 White Flower is the hanamaru stamp a Japanese teacher puts on very good work.

Maybe, wait and I don't know: 🤷, 🤔, 🫤

Not every answer is yes or no. 🤷 Person Shrugging is "no idea" and "don't ask me", 🤔 Thinking Face is "let me think", and 🤨 Face with Raised Eyebrow is a doubtful "really?". 🫤 Face with Diagonal Mouth is the emoji form of the :/ emoticon, a "meh, not sure". 😐 Neutral Face and 😑 Expressionless Face answer without answering, 😶 and 🤐 mean no comment, 🙄 is a no with an eye roll and 😬 is a wince that says "ehh, probably not".

☝️ Index Pointing Up means "wait, one moment" before the real answer, 🤞 Crossed Fingers is "hopefully yes", and the marks ❓ ❔ ⁉️ ask the question back. In a poll, 🤷 or ❔ is the usual third option between ✅ and ❌.

Yes and no as text: ✓ ✗, ○ ×, polls and shortcodes

When you want a yes or no that looks like text rather than a coloured picture, use the typographic marks: ✓ and ✗ are the light tick and cross, ✘ the heavy cross, and ☐ ☑ ☒ the empty, ticked and crossed checkboxes, so ☐ yes ☐ no becomes ☑ yes ☐ no once answered. 🗸 and 🗹 are the Wingdings tick and ticked box, and 🖒 🖓 are the Wingdings thumbs, which take the colour of your font but do not show on every device.

Japan uses circles and crosses instead of ticks: ○ (maru) means correct or yes, × (batsu) wrong or no, △ partly right, and ◎ (double circle) excellent. That is why the red ⭕ emoji means "correct" rather than "zero", and why 🙆 and 🙅 draw a circle and a cross with their arms. For a quick poll, post the question and react with ✅ and ❌ (or 👍 and 👎) so people tap to vote; 🗳️ Ballot Box marks a real vote.

To type them: on Windows press Win + . and search "thumbs", "check" or "nod"; on a Mac press Ctrl + Cmd + Space. In Slack, GitHub and Discord the shortcodes are :+1: or :thumbsup: for 👍, :-1: for 👎, :white_check_mark: for ✅, :x: for ❌, :ok_hand: for 👌 and :ok: for 🆗. The nodding and head-shaking faces need a 2024 or newer system (iOS 17.4, Android 14 with updated fonts); on older devices they fall apart into 🙂 followed by a little arrow.