ID button

ID means identification: a document, or the name or number that identifies you.

The emoji shows the capital letters ID in a rounded square, like a key on a screen. ID has two everyday senses, and the emoji carries both. One is proof of identity: the card, passport or licence you show at a door, a bank or an airport. The other is an identifier: the username, account number, membership number or player code that tells a system which account is yours. In a message, the words around 🆔 tell you which one is meant, and most of the time it is the second: "my 🆔 is …", "send me your 🆔", "🆔: …" in a profile.

The button shape is inherited. 🆔 belongs to a set of squared-letter labels (🆕 🆗 🆓 🆒 and others) that came from Japanese mobile phones in the early 2000s, where tiny icons marked buttons and form fields on small screens. In Japan, ID is the ordinary word for a login name, so the icon sat beside the field where you typed it. Unicode took the whole set over in 2010, which is why these look like interface buttons rather than pictures.

What does someone mean when they send 🆔?

They want an identifier, or they want you to prove who you are.

Beside account details, a friend code or a gamer tag, 🆔 means "here is my ID" or "send me yours" so you can find or add each other. In a message about a party, club, exam or pickup, it means bring identification: a passport, licence or ID card. Paired with a question like "who is this?", it is a brisk way of asking a stranger to identify themselves. On its own, with no words, it is simply the idea of identity or a login.

🆔 refers to identification; it does not confer it. Putting it next to a name, handle or profile proves nothing about who that person is, and it is not the verified badge that social networks show. Treat it as a caption, and be as careful about where you send your real documents as you would be without the emoji.