Arrow Symbols

Which arrow for which job

Unicode has several hundred arrows, spread across the Arrows block, Dingbats, Supplemental Arrows and a few other places. The set above covers the ones people actually use.

The basic four, → ← ↑ ↓, are U+2192, U+2190, U+2191 and U+2193. They are the right choice for directions, steps (“Settings → Privacy → Cookies”), sequences and before-and-after notes. Because they are so old and common, they are drawn by almost every font. ↖ ↗ ↘ ↙ add the diagonals. ↗ is the usual “opens in a new tab” or “trending up” mark.

Two-way and return arrows. ↔ (U+2194) means swap, between or both ways. ↕ is its vertical counterpart. ↩ and ↪ are “return” hooks, used for “back to previous” and for footnote return links on web pages. ↻ ↺ ⟳ ⟲ are circular arrows for refresh, redo, undo or repeat. The two pairs differ only slightly in design, and which direction a font draws “clockwise” in can look inconsistent between fonts.

Double and long arrows. ⇒ ⇐ ⇔ are the double-shaft arrows from logic and mathematics: “implies”, “is implied by” and “if and only if”. Use them for that meaning, or as a more emphatic arrow in notes. ⇨ is a hollow version with a white body. ⟶ ⟵ ⟷ are long arrows from the Supplemental Arrows-A block, handy in flow notes where a longer shaft reads better.

Heavy and decorative arrows. ➔ ➜ ➝ ➞ ➤ ➡ come from the Dingbats block. They have solid shafts and wide, pointed or swept heads. ➤ is a popular bullet, as is ➜. They suit bios, lists and signs; for technical writing, stay with → and ⇒.

Triangle pointers. ▲ ▼ ▶ ◀ ► ◄ are geometric shapes, not arrows. ▲ and ▼ are used for “increase” and “decrease” or for sorting indicators. ▶ is a play button. ► and ◄ are the small pointers that old DOS menus used. They look arrow-like and are widely supported, but accessibility tools name them as triangles, which is accurate.

Text arrows and emoji arrows

Some arrows have two lives. The Unicode emoji list includes ➡ ⬅ ⬆ ⬇ ↔ ↕ ↗ ↘ ↙ ↖ ↩ ↪ ⤴ ⤵ and the play and reverse triangles ▶ and ◀. On phones, those characters are often drawn as colour emoji, typically a thick arrow on a blue square. On a desktop word processor, the same characters usually look like a simple black glyph.

The same pattern appears with hearts and stars: the underlying character is text by default, but chat apps and phone keyboards often show the emoji. If you want the text version, you have two practical options.

1. Choose an arrow with no emoji form. → ← ↑ ↓ are in the same block as ↔ but are not on the emoji list, so they are drawn as text far more consistently. ⇒, ⟶ and ➔ are other emoji-free choices.
2. Add a variation selector. U+FE0E after a character asks for text presentation, and U+FE0F asks for emoji presentation. For example, ↔ followed by U+FE0E is the text request. These are invisible, so a pasted arrow can carry one without you noticing. Some apps honour them, some drop them, and a few show them as a stray box. Treat them as hints.

The selector is also a separate code point, which matters for fields with a code point limit. Our character limits guide explains how platforms count.

Where arrows work

• Documents and spreadsheets. → ← ↑ ↓ ↔ are in the standard fonts on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, so they paste into Word, Excel and Google Docs without trouble. Longer arrows such as ⟶ may use a fallback font and look a little different, but normally display.
• Bios and names. Arrows are popular as separators or pointers in bios. Whether a name field accepts them is set by each platform, so check the saved result. Our Instagram fonts and TikTok fonts pages document what we have verified for those platforms.
• Games. Name filters vary and can strip symbols. We cannot promise that any particular game accepts a given arrow; test it in the name box.
• Websites. In HTML, →, ←, ↑ and ↓ produce the four basic arrows, and any arrow can be pasted directly with UTF-8 or written as a numeric entity such as →. If an icon must look identical everywhere, use an SVG, not a text arrow.
• Monospaced text. Dingbat and long arrows are often wider than other characters in a monospaced font, which breaks alignment in code comments and ASCII tables. Use ASCII (->, =>) when alignment matters.

How to type an arrow

1. Windows Alt codes. With Num Lock on, hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad: 26 for →, 27 for ←, 24 for ↑, 25 for ↓, 29 for ↔, 18 for ↕. Alt+16 and Alt+17 give ► and ◄, and Alt+30 and Alt+31 give ▲ and ▼. These come from the old OEM character set, need a physical numeric keypad and do not work in every app. No codes exist this way for ⇒, ➔ and similar.
2. Word on Windows. Type the code point, such as 21D2, and press Alt and X to convert it. This works for every arrow in the grid.
3. Windows emoji panel. Press the Windows key and the period key, then browse the Symbols tab or search “arrow”.
4. Mac. Control, Command and Space opens the Character Viewer, where searching “arrow” lists every arrow. Some apps also autocorrect “->” to → if smart substitutions are enabled in System Settings, which is worth checking before relying on it.
5. Phones. Search “arrow” on the emoji keyboard for the emoji forms. Symbols such as → and ← are typically on the symbols page of the standard keyboard, which varies by keyboard app.
6. Text replacement. Set a shortcut like “rarr” to expand to → in iOS or macOS settings, or use autocorrect in Word and Google Docs for “->”.

Accessibility

Screen readers announce arrows by name, for example “rightwards arrow” for →, “leftwards arrow” for ←, “left right arrow” for ↔ and “rightwards double arrow” for ⇒. Exact wording differs between NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver and TalkBack, and some readers skip symbols entirely unless punctuation reading is raised.

Direction and meaning are separate. “Home → Settings → Privacy” is understood, but it relies on the listener knowing that each arrow means “then”. For instructions that matter, such as a how-to or a legal notice, write the steps as words or a numbered list and use arrows only as a visual extra. Our fancy text accessibility guide has more on this.

Related symbol sets

Arrows pair naturally with other ornaments. Try star symbols or heart symbols as bullets, or wrap a name in arrows with the text decorator. If an arrow shows as an empty box on someone’s device, why fancy text shows boxes explains the cause. The symbols hub lists the rest of the section.