Imagine you are driving your car and someone endangers you with a reckless road maneuver; this is the kind of scenario in which you would give a middle finger emoji. In real messaging circumstances however, the emoji can be used in two distinct ways; as a defensive tool or as an offensive one. As a defensive tool, you can simply use the emoji by itself (or with a choice expletive) if your friends are ribbing you about something. Let’s say that your choice of jumper is the subject of discussion; a well placed middle finger can be used and will show your disapproval of the conversation. In terms of offense, the middle finger emoji can be mostly used when the shoe is on the other foot and it is your turn to shred someone. When complimented with some choice insults - this emoji can be a pretty devastating tool; just make sure your insults aren’t too offensive - you don’t want to cause bad blood for a bit of emoji fun!

Approved in Unicode 6.0, Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended was added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.