What 🔅 means
🔅 is the dim button emoji, filed under Symbols in the av-symbol subgroup of the Unicode emoji index.
It was added in Emoji 1.0 (2015) and the underlying characters entered Unicode in version 6.0 (2010). The characters therefore predate their emoji presentation by 5 years.
How it is encoded
🔅 is a single code point, U+1F505.
It is RGI (recommended for general interchange), so every major platform ships artwork for it.
Don't confuse it with
1Worth knowing
- 🔅 and 🔆 reached Unicode through a 2009 proposal from the Irish and German national standards bodies, which treated them as user-interface controls rather than pictures of the sun.
Questions people ask
1Why does 🔅 look different on other phones?
Every platform draws its own artwork for the same code point. The character you send is identical; Apple, Google, Samsung and WhatsApp each render it in their own style.
How to type 🔅
Windows
Win+.Open the emoji picker and search “dim button”.
macOS
Control+Command+Spaceopens the character viewer.
iOS / Android
Emoji keyboard → search “dim button”.
Chat apps
:low_brightness:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.HTML
🔅Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
🔅
HTML hex
🔅
CSS content
content: "\1F505";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%F0%9F%94%85
1
On screen
1
Code points
2
JS .length
4
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.