Valentine’s Day is over , but we’re still receiving an endless stream of kisses: passed along in emails and texts like months-old mints nestled at the bottom of our bags, doled out inconsequentially to our tax guys and the work colleagues we’ve never actually met.

Symbolized by two lowercase X’s or a lone capital at the close of a message, kisses have become the trivial signoff du jour for a subset of Americans, a spicier take on “All best.” Hugs, their more sober partner, written simply as “o,” have been kicked aside after failing to make it big in the merciless world of internet parlance.

Ending digital notes with these shorthand kisses is especially popular today among people who work in industries like fashion or public relations, which lean female and are, perhaps, less likely to be navigating the muddy waters of #MeToo. The x’s manufacture closeness and soften bad news. To leave them out is to risk coming across wooden and cold, if not a psychopath .

Dana Schwartz, the co-founder of the Hours Agency, a fashion public relations firm in New York, has long been a proponent of signing work-related emails with “xx,” finding that it makes the messages more friendly and conversational. In the last few years, she’s noticed more and more people in her orbit using “xx,” too.