What means
It points down; the glyph alone does not say what should move.
The 2022 Unicode proposal maps to C1 in the Japanese primary set for Sharp MZ computers. The MZ-700 appeared in 1982. C1 could move the text cursor down in a control routine or display the arrow as ordinary text. Unicode kept it for converting old text and emulators.
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsOrdinary message
Down direction; the surrounding words say what should move.
MZ control code
C1 moves the text cursor down in that machine's control path.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions 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
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 1F8B7, then Alt+X to get .
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “negative squared downwards arrow”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 1f8b7, then Enter or Space.
HTML
🢷CSS
\1F8B7Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
🢷
HTML hex
🢷
CSS content
content: "\1F8B7";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%F0%9F%A2%B7
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.