Symbols
Facebook symbols and special characters
Facebook posts, comments and Messenger chats take almost any symbol you paste, from ✓ and ★ to ₹ and ☎. Names are the exception: a profile name can’t contain symbols at all, and a Page name can’t include ones such as ®. Tap a symbol below to copy it. Further down: which ones turn into emoji, and what Facebook’s own icons mean.
57 to copy · Updated 6 October 2026
For posts and comments · 14
Prices, sizes and Marketplace · 14
Events, places and contact · 12
Emoji closest to the reactions · 7
Announcements in groups and Pages · 10
Ready-made lines for bios and captions
Where Facebook takes symbols, and where it refuses them
| Place | Symbols? | What applies |
|---|---|---|
| Posts, comments and replies | Yes | Anything you can paste, including emoji. Line breaks are kept. |
| Messenger chats | Yes | The same as posts. |
| Marketplace descriptions | Yes | Handy for prices, sizes and pick-up details. Keep the title in plain words, since words are what buyers search for. |
| Profile bio | Yes | It is short, so one or two symbols are plenty. |
| Profile name | No | Facebook’s name rules exclude symbols, numbers, unusual capitalisation, repeated characters and punctuation, and characters from more than one language. |
| Page name | No | Facebook’s Page name guidelines rule out symbols such as ® and unnecessary punctuation, along with improper capitalisation and slogans. |
| Username (facebook.com/…) | No | Letters, numbers and full stops only, at least five characters. |
Facebook asks people to use the name they go by in everyday life, which is why it won’t accept a profile name with a heart or a star in it. Put the decoration in your bio or your posts instead.
Symbols that turn into emoji
Some characters lead a double life. ✔ ☺ ✌ ☎ ✉ and ♥ exist as plain text and as emoji, and the device, app or browser decides which one appears. Others, such as ☕ ⌚ and ♿, are drawn as emoji by default. In a list where every line starts with ✔, one phone may show slim black ticks and another chunkier emoji ones.
If the look has to match everywhere, pick from symbols with no emoji form, such as ✓ ✗ ★ ☆ ☏ ✆ and ☞. If you want colour, go all the way and use emoji throughout: ✅ instead of ✔, 📞 instead of ☎.
What Facebook’s own symbols mean
| Symbol | Where you see it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Globe 🌐 | Next to the time on a post | Public: anyone on or off Facebook can see it |
| Two people 👥 | Next to the time on a post | Friends: only your friends can see it |
| Lock 🔒 | Next to the time on a post | Only me: nobody else can see it |
| Empty circle | Beside a message in Messenger | Sending |
| Circle with a tick | Beside a message in Messenger | Sent |
| Filled circle with a tick | Beside a message in Messenger | Delivered |
| Your friend’s tiny profile photo | Under a message in Messenger | Seen |
| Blue badge with a white tick | After a profile or Page name | Verified by Meta |
Reactions arrived in 2016, when Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry joined Like, and Care was added in 2020, early in the pandemic.
Tip: A ✔ typed after a name is not a verification badge, and Facebook won’t accept one in a profile name anyway. The real badge is added by Meta and can’t be copied.
Posts that are easy to read
- Start each line of a list with the same symbol. On a computer, Enter starts a new line in a post but sends a comment; use Shift and Enter for a line break in a comment.
- Put the price first in a Marketplace description and write it the way buyers in your country do: ₹1,200, ₱250, £15.
- Use one symbol per idea. 📍 for the place and ⏰ for the time read quickly; a row of five emoji before every line reads as noise.
- Screen readers name each symbol, so ☞ may be read as “white right pointing index” before every line. Write the important words in full and let the symbols decorate.
Tip: Facebook said in 2017 that it would show fewer posts that bait people into reacting, commenting or sharing, such as “react ❤️ for yes, 😮 for no”. Symbols that tidy a post are fine; symbols that ask for votes can cost you reach.
Questions people ask
Can I use symbols in my Facebook name?
Not in a profile name. Facebook’s rules exclude symbols, numbers, unusual capitalisation, repeated characters and punctuation, and Page names can’t carry symbols such as ® either. Your bio, posts and comments are where symbols are welcome.
What does the globe icon on a Facebook post mean?
The post is public, so anyone can see it, including people who aren’t your friends or aren’t on Facebook at all. You can change who sees your own posts: Friends shows two people and Only me shows a lock.
What do the circles next to my Messenger messages mean?
An empty circle means the message is still on its way, a circle with a tick means it has been sent, and a filled circle with a tick means it reached the other person’s device. Once they read it, a small copy of their profile photo takes its place.
Can I copy Facebook’s reaction icons?
Not as they look on Facebook. The reactions are images drawn by Facebook, not characters, so they can’t go into text. The nearest emoji are 👍 ❤️ 🤗 😆 😮 😢 and 😡, and each phone draws those in its own style.
Why do some symbols show as boxes on Facebook?
The phone or computer has no font with that character, or the emoji is newer than its software. Symbols that have been in Unicode since the early 1990s, such as ✓ ★ ♥ and ☎, display almost everywhere, while recently added emoji are the first to fail on older devices.
Related pages
More symbols and text art
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