What means
In 2026, Word on Windows: type 1F8B5 and press Alt+X.
As of 2026, GNOME on Linux accepts Ctrl+Shift+u, then 1F8B5 and Enter; some French and German editions of Word use Alt+C instead. macOS's Unicode Hex Input accepts only four hexadecimal digits, so use Character Viewer and search by the symbol's name or code. In Word, select the code before conversion if another hexadecimal digit comes immediately before it.
Why is the arrow in a square?
The square preserves an older computer-display design.
comes from the default display-character set on Japanese Sharp MZ computers. A character generator—the built-in store of letter and picture shapes—let these machines show text and simple screen drawings; Sharp's MZ-80K appeared in 1978. A 2022 Unicode proposal maps to plain ↑ for its direction but keeps the MZ form separate so old character data can convert without losing it.
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
🢵\1F8B5Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.