A plain triangle facing left, the mirror of ▶️ Play Button and the control for running something backward rather than forward. It's rarer on modern players, most of which skip straight to double arrows, but it still turns up on remotes and older interfaces, and as a typed word it means reversing course on something already decided.
What ◀️ means
On the players that still carry it, this one runs playback backwards rather than jumping to the previous track, which is ⏮️ Last Track Button's job. Sitting next to the ▶️ Play Button in a row of controls, it's the shape people picture when they talk about rewinding something to see it again.
How and when to use it
- While informing someone about the mess you've created, advising them that things aren't easy to undo, or anything about 'the past', you can use ◀️.
- A few instances for the previous point - "I've wrecked it. I don't think I can undo it now ◀️", "Look before you leap, friend. You wouldn't be able to reverse any of it so easily ◀️" or "If you keep replaying the same part in the video, how would you ever complete the movie? ◀️".
- ◀️ doesn't suggest skipping parts or anything, it just rewinds an entire scenario, with all the details, just a little faster. While talking about something or someone who's beginning to sink backward, use ◀️.
- Some examples for the previous use-case: "I don't think he sees it. But he's actually undoing all the greatness he'd created ◀️". or "The challenge isn't to walk away, but to never look back again ◀️".
- The reverse button is some sort of technological sorcery. If you think about it, ◀️ is the only way we could ever relive a moment that just passed; virtually, ofc.
- For instance: "Life isn't a movie, dude. Once you lose a moment, it's gone, FOREVER ◀️" or "I just keep rewinding, in my mind, to the time we met and pity my feelings ◀️".
Other Names
- ◀️ Subtle Rewind
- ◀️ Go Backward
- ◀️ Reverse
- ◀️ Recent Past
- ◀️ Left Triangle
- ◀️ Left-Pointing Triangle
- ◀️ Black Left-Pointing Triangle
- ◀️ Rewind Button
The lowdown
- Category
- Symbols › av-symbol
- Codepoints
U+25C0 U+FE0F- Emoji version
- Emoji 0.6
- Shortcodes
:arrow_backward:GitHub- Keywords
- arrow, button, left, reverse, triangle
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 — ◀️ Reverse Button or 🇲🇦 Flag: Morocco?