From friendly smiley faces to cheeky aubergines, emoji now form a staple part of many people’s daily messages. 

But despite their prevalence, people are only just realising what one popular character really means. 

The emoji in question features a hand with a raised pinky finger, index finger, and an extended thumb. 

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this for the ‘Sign of the Horns’ emoji, which features a hand with the pinky and index fingers extended, and signals ‘rock on’. 

However, the addition of the thumb actually completely changes the meaning.

Instead, this popular emoji really means ‘I love you’. 

The news has come as a shock to many emoji users, including one who was left red-faced by her misinterpretation.

‘So I sent one of my male friends this emoji today thinking it meant something cool forgetting it actually means I love you…well that was an embarrassing conversation,’ she tweeted. 

From friendly smiley faces to cheeky aubergines, emoji now form a staple part of many people’s daily messages. But despite their prevalence, people are only just realising what one popular character really means

The emoji in question features a hand with a raised pinky finger, index finger, and an extended thumb

The ‘I love you’ emoji is based on American Sign Language. 

The pinky finger extended represents the letter ‘I’, while the thumb and index finger extended together represent the letter ‘L’. 

Meanwhile, the pinky and thumb extended together represent the letter ‘Y’. 

So, when these letters are combined, they represent ‘ILY’ – or ‘I love you’. 

This meaning has come as a surprise to many users – many of who had mistaken it for the Sign of the Horns emoji. 

This Sign of the Horns hand sign is often associated with heavy metal culture, and has roots in Italian traditions as a ward against the ‘evil eye’. 

Now, it is commonly used to signify ‘rock on’ or ‘good times’ – and importantly, if keeps the thumb clasped against the two middle fingers, rather than extended.

‘I’ve always meant rock on or let’s rock something like that lol,’ one user tweeted about the ‘I love you’ emoji. 

This Sign of the Horns hand sign is often associated with heavy metal culture, and has roots in Italian traditions as a ward against the ‘evil eye’

The news has come as a shock to many emoji users – including one who was left red-faced by her misinterpretation

One user joked: ‘I love you! I didn’t know that’s the meaning. I just saw it on a woman’s shirt and I had to know what it means’

The surprising meaning has come as a shock to many users – many of which had mistaken it for the Sign of the Horns emoji

Another said: ‘I thought it meant rock on.’

And one joked: ‘I love you! I didn’t know that’s the meaning. I just saw it on a woman’s shirt and I had to know what it means.’

The ‘I love you’ emoji isn’t the only one you’ve probably been using wrong. 

While you might assume that a heart emoji just means love, in emoji slang each different colour actually has its own hidden meaning.

In the most common view, a red heart represents classic love or romantic feelings.

An orange heart is used for warmth, enthusiasm, or love between friends and family.

Meanwhile, a blue heart is used less for romance, and more frequently to express friendship or to say that something is cute.

Likewise, a black heart doesn’t necessarily have any associations with death or dark emotions and is more often used as an alternative to the red heart for aesthetic reasons.