What ✖️ means
Between quantities, it means multiply. Read this multiplication sign as “times,” not as the letter x. Numbers on either side make the arithmetic reading clear; an isolated X-shaped mark gives you less context.
Why is it black and white?
Emoji style does not guarantee color. ✖️ includes an invisible character that requests emoji presentation. Software and fonts determine the finish, and some may display it as plain text. Color alone cannot tell you whether that request was honored.
Worth knowing
- The characters behind ✖️ existed in Unicode 8 years before anyone was allowed to draw them in colour: Unicode 3.2 in 2002, emoji presentation in 2010.
- ✖️ is not one character. It is 2 of them glued together, which is why deleting it sometimes takes two presses of backspace and why it breaks character counters.
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 “multiply”.
macOS
Control+Command+Spaceopens the character viewer.
iOS / Android
Emoji keyboard → search “multiply”.
Chat apps
:heavy_multiplication_x:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.HTML
✖️Codes and encoding2 code points
HTML decimal
✖️
HTML hex
✖️
CSS content
content: "\2716\FE0F";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%9C%96%EF%B8%8F
1
On screen
2
Code points
2
JS .length
6
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.