What ⃞ means
Put the mark after the one symbol it should enclose.
The sequence is base first, mark second: A⃞ asks the renderer to enclose A. Unicode provides enclosing combining marks for occasional symbols that have no single encoded enclosed form. This mark encloses one symbol; it does not represent an ordinary square by itself.
It encloses one character, not a text box.
Unicode does not define applying an enclosing combining mark to more than one base character, so it is not a reliable way to put a box around a word or phrase.
The Unicode 1.1 character list from 1993 uses the older name “ENCLOSING SQUARE.”
A 2017 proposal in a Unicode mailing list suggested using the mark for chessboard backgrounds in plain text.
Why does the square look wrong?
The font or shaping engine may not support the combination.
Unicode 17.0 says full rendering support for enclosing combining marks is not widespread. A font can omit the mark, place the enclosure badly, or show a missing-glyph box; the application’s fallback choices matter too. Try a font that supports combining marks and inspect the actual base-plus-mark sequence.
Technical and typographic; it is not a conventional chat reaction.
A lone mark is incomplete; it needs a base character.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
2Can I send this mark on its own?
No. Without a base character, it has nothing to enclose, so it has no stable message meaning.
Why does my Unicode square disappear?
Usually the base is missing or the font cannot render the pair. Put the base first; even in the right order, Unicode 17.0 says full support for enclosing combining marks is not widespread.
How to type ⃞
⃞\20DECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.