A tall red pillar box with a horizontal slot for letters, the vertical Japanese-style postbox most emoji sets draw rather than the American curbside kind. It stands for mailing something the analog way — a postcard, a birthday card, a letter someone will actually hold.
What 📮 means
A vertically rectangular red box standing on a post of the same color with a white letter envelope either falling out of or falling into an aperture or a slim horizontal opening on the box.
The 📮 Postbox emoji represents the postal system that's generally used around the world. Signifying the act of posting letters or maybe even receiving them, this emoji could also suggest an important public service sector from a larger POV.
How and when to use it
- A postbox is a medium of collection for posts and letters. You could use 📮 while suggesting a 'collection' or the act of collecting in general contexts. For example, "Collect memories not things 📮" or "I love collecting random stuff that people give me 📮".
- However, an uncleared postbox may also suggest hoarding or a hoarder. If you're telling someone that you're a hoarder or if you're posting a picture, the caption for which resonates with hoarding, then too, you can use 📮.
- Examples for the previous use-case: "I'm a big-time hoarder, btw 📮. Don't be surprised when you see my room" or "Here's a piece of my hoarding collection 📮".
- Use 📮 while referring to all aspects of a postal system such as postage, posting, postal services, post offices, etc.
- Ensure to use 📮 even while phrasing metaphorical captions out of the postal umbrella! For example, "Be like a postage stamp 📮. Stick to one thing until you get there".
Other Names
- 📮 Post
- 📮 Letterbox
- 📮 Pillar Box
- 📮 Post Box
- 📮 DropBox
- 📮 Mail Box
- 📮 Collection Box
The lowdown
- Category
- Objects › mail
- Codepoints
U+1F4EE- Emoji version
- Emoji 0.6
- Shortcodes
:postbox:- Keywords
- mail, mailbox, postbox
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 — 📮 Postbox or 🤔 Thinking Face?