Inverse of 🔳 White Square Button: a black square framed by a white border instead, from that same 2010 batch of plain interface icons. It reads as the 'on' or 'selected' state opposite that pairing, a filled-in toggle beside an empty one.
What 🔲 means
A ⬛ Black Large Square coupled with a ◻️ White Medium Square at the center. The 🔲 Black Square Button emoji internalizes the chessboard pattern, thus suggesting possible illusions stemming from it, apart from representing the colors.
How and when to use it
- While metaphorically saying that something is black and white, there's a reference to polarities. Like, "Not everything is black and white 🔲" or "This is not a matter of good or bad, in the first place 🔲".
- 🔲 could also be a symbol for a frame (white being the part where the picture, scenario, etc. goes). For example, "Gotta frame this baby 🔲" or "Don't frame situations to escape the truth 🔲".
- Since 🔲 compresses both a black square and a white square into one, you could use this emoji as a synecdoche for the piano, piano tiles, or keys (along with the 🔳 White Square Button if you like).
- You may also use 🔲 in the context of black and white pictures, black and white photography, and the like.
Other Names
- 🔲 Black Large Square With White Medium Square
- 🔲 Black Square With White Square
- 🔲 Black and White
- 🔲 Black Frame
- 🔲 Piano Tiles
- 🔲 B&W
- 🔲 Button
The lowdown
- Category
- Symbols › geometric
- Codepoints
U+1F532- Emoji version
- Emoji 0.6
- Shortcodes
:black_square_button:- Keywords
- black, button, geometric, square
How it looks across platforms
Seeing a blank box instead of the emoji somewhere? Here's why that happens. Curious why the designs above don't match to begin with? Here's why that happens too.
⚡ Quick round
Which joined the keyboard first — 🔲 Black Square Button or ♂️ Male Sign?
Runs with a crowd
🔲 keeps company in black emojis — tap-to-copy sets for when one emoji isn't enough.