Symbols · Emoji 0.6
▶️Play Button Emoji
Generally, it means “start playing” or “let’s begin.” People use it to signal they’re about to watch a video or listen to music.
The ▶️ emoji is the play button.
- Unicode
- U+25B6 U+FE0F
- Released
- 2010
- Shortcode
- :arrow_
forward: - Skin tones
- No
01 — Meaning
What does the ▶️ Play Button emoji mean?
One character, many names — these are the wordings people actually type, all 5 of them.
02 — Platforms
Play Button emoji on iPhone, Android, WhatsApp and X
Same code on both ends, different drawing on each screen — here is the play button as 9 vendors ship it.
See the whole set the way each system draws it — iPhone emojis, Android emojis, WhatsApp emojis and Discord emojis.
03 — Copy & codes
Play Button emoji copy and paste
Tap any value to copy it. The emoji itself works everywhere, the escapes are for your code, and the shortcode Slack and Discord expect is :arrow_forward:.
All emoji copy and paste →In your code
Escapes for the languages people actually paste this into. Every one of them produces the same character, and that character is U+25B6.
04 — How to type
How to type the ▶️ Play Button emoji
Where the emoji key lives on each system — and the codes for when there is no picker at all.
05 — Download
Play Button emoji PNG and SVG
Transparent PNG and SVG for thumbnails, decks and design files — one file per vendor, which makes 9. Artwork belongs to whoever drew it, so check the licence before commercial use.
Emoji PNG library →
Apple
Google
Twitter / X
Facebook
Microsoft
06 — Combinations
Play Button emoji combinations
Ready-made combos built around play button for bios, captions and comments. Tap to copy.
All combinations →Want two emojis fused into one sticker instead of set side by side? Emoji Kitchen does that for every pair Google has drawn, and there are more ready-made pairs in emoji combinations and aesthetic emoji combos.
07 — In conversation
What ▶️ means from a girl or a guy
Who sent the play button and what came before it change the reading more than the emoji itself does.
08 — Apps
What ▶️ means on TikTok, WhatsApp and Discord
Chat apps do not change U+25B6, they change what it looks like and what people take it to mean.
10 — Difference
▶️ vs ⏯️ — what is the difference?
Two emojis that get mixed up constantly. They are different characters with different names.
Unicode name: Play Button
Code: U+25B6 U+FE0F · added 2010
Shortcode: :arrow_forward:
Generally, it means “start playing” or “let’s begin.”
Unicode name: Play Or Pause Button
Code: U+23EF U+FE0F · added 2015
Shortcode: :black_right_pointing_triangle_with_double_vertical_bar:
Generally, it just means “play” or “pause.”
11 — History
Where the ▶️ Play Button emoji came from
This one is older than Unicode emoji: Japanese carriers were drawing it on their handsets years before the standard existed, which it finally joined in 2010.
Same character every time — U+25B6 U+FE0F never changed. Only the drawing did, and only because each vendor redraws its own set. Someone on an older phone still sees the older picture.
Long before Unicode had emoji, Japanese carriers shipped their own picture sets.
▶️ existed there as
KDDI au E52E, SoftBank E23A.
Those codes are why it survived into the standard at all — Unicode had to keep Japanese messages readable.
Play Button was approved as U+25B6 U+FE0F and shipped in Emoji 0.6 (2010). Emoji 0.6 is the original 2010 batch that came over from the Japanese sets.
Every vendor keeps its own artwork, so ▶️ is redrawn by Apple, Google, Twitter / X, Facebook, OpenMoji, Samsung, Microsoft, WhatsApp, JoyPixels. The character you send never changes — only the picture does.
12 — FAQ