A button used for playing or pausing audio or video content. Emoji

Symbols

A dark square button featuring a white triangle pointing right, followed by two vertical white bars. This icon serves as a toggle switch to alternate between playback and pausing for multimedia content.

Usage Context

You will mostly see this button on music players, video streaming interfaces, and remote controls. It acts as a quick way to tell someone to start or stop a track, or to indicate a state of flux in a conversation. It is often grouped with media control icons like ▶️, ⏸️, or ⏹️.

History

This symbol originated from physical hardware tape decks and VCRs in the 1970s and 80s. As media playback moved from mechanical buttons to digital screens, this combined icon became a standard control feature in software like Windows Media Player and early web-based video controllers.

Details

Glyph

⏯

Unicode

U+23EF

Shortcode

:emoji_u23ef:

HTML Entity

⏯

Specifications

Vendor Microsoft

Category Symbols

Subcategory av-symbol

Unicode Version 6.0

Emoji Version 1.0

License MIT

Microsoft Fluent License

Emoji graphics by Microsoft. © Microsoft Corporation. Licensed under MIT. Excludes assets such as Clippy, flags, and trademarks.

Microsoft Fluent Emoji assets are licensed under the MIT License. Certain assets—such as Clippy, country flags, and Microsoft product/brand trademarks—are excluded from this license and may not be used without separate permission.

MIT License Fluent Emoji Repository