What ▸ means
It points forward or opens a list item. It has no single inventor as of 2026. It belongs to older pointing marks in manuscripts and print, and to triangular bullets that open specially formatted paragraphs.
That gives ▸ two jobs: directional when it sits before following text, and editorial when it starts a line. Copy it from the palette above and let the surrounding words decide.
Neutral, compact, and typographic; it feels more designed than a plain round bullet.
Do not assume it means play: its small size commonly reads as a bullet or pointer.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
2Questions people ask
1Why does ▸ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ▸
▸\25B8Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.