What ๐ฐ means
A public sign meaning โdrinking water available hereโ. The picture is a tap, or faucet, filling a glass, and it copies the standard pictogram used on real signs beside drinking fountains, refill taps and water points, in places such as airports, stations and parks. โPotable waterโ is the formal wording; in everyday speech most people just say tap water or drinking water.
Because it is a sign and not an object, some phones and apps draw it as a white tap and glass on a blue square, like the toilet or lift signs, while others, as of 2026, draw a plain tap and glass. Both mean exactly the same thing. It is not a kitchen sink, a hand-washing sign or a shower.
What does it mean when someone sends ๐ฐ?
Take it literally: it is about drinking water. Alone or after a complaint about thirst, heat or a hangover, it reads as a friendly โgo drink some waterโ. In travel chats it can answer the question many travellers ask: whether the tap water is safe, or where to refill a bottle instead of buying plastic. In plans for a hike or a festival it can mark where water can be found.
It has no established hidden, romantic or rude reading. If it looks out of place, the sender may have wanted or and grabbed the nearest watery icon.
Practical, neutral and literal; at home in a travel guide, an event info post or a caring reminder, with no established flirty or sarcastic use.
Don't mix it up with : the slashed tap means the water is unsafe to drink.
Part of collections
What it means when someone sends it to you
4 readingsA nudge to drink some water.
Don't confuse it with
2
Combination ideas
5Worth knowing
- โPotableโ comes from the Latin potare, to drink, and today turns up mainly on signs and in plumbing codes; the same root gives โpotionโ.
- The drinking-water sign and its slashed opposite were proposed and entered Unicode together in 6.0, so the pair has always been meant to be read side by side.
Questions people ask
2Does ๐ฐ mean the water is actually safe to drink?
Not as a guarantee. On a real tap it marks a drinking-water point; in a message it is someone's opinion or memory. Check local advice before drinking tap water abroad.
Is ๐ฐ the sink or hand-washing emoji?
No. It shows a tap filling a drinking glass and means drinking water. There is no sink emoji; for washing, people tend to use soap or sponge.
More like this
14
Collections with ๐ฐ
8
How to type or find ๐ฐ
- Also called
- drinking water emoji ยท tap water emoji ยท faucet emoji
- Search it as
- tap water ยท faucet ยท drinking water ยท water tap ยท drinking fountain ยท potable ยท refill ยท hydration
- Type it as
- :potable_water:
- Around since
- 2015 ยท Emoji 1.0
- Shows up on
- Every phone ยท iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux
:potable_water:Common shortcode in Slack, GitHub, Discord, Mattermost and other chat apps; a few apps use a different name.🚰Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.