SymbolHub

Smiley Face Symbol (☺)

The smiley face symbol ☺ is Unicode U+263A, the classic outline smiling face text symbol from early computing. Press Copy to put it on your clipboard, or type it with Alt + 1 on Windows.

Unicode
U+263A
HTML
☺
Windows
Alt + 1

How to type the smiley face symbol (☺)

The quickest way is to press Copy above and paste. To type ☺ yourself, use the method for your device below.

Windows

  1. Hold Alt and type 1 on the numeric keypad. This older code (from code page 437) works in Notepad, Word and most desktop apps.
  2. In Word or Outlook, type 263A and press Alt + X. Alt + X converts the hex code before the cursor into the character, and back again.
  3. Press Win + . to open the emoji panel, then search for “smiling face”.

Mac

  1. Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search for smiling face and double-click it.
  2. With the Unicode Hex Input keyboard enabled (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), hold Option and type 263A.

Linux & ChromeOS

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + U, type 263a, then press Enter or Space. Works in GTK and IBus apps (GNOME, Firefox, Chrome, LibreOffice) and on ChromeOS.

iPhone & iPad

  1. Open the emoji keyboard and search for “smiling face” to insert ☺️, the colour emoji. For the plain text ☺, copy it from this page.
  2. Copy ☺ from this page, then go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement and add it with a shortcut such as ;smil. The shortcut then turns into the symbol as you type, in every app.

Android

  1. In Gboard, tap the emoji key and search for “smiling face” to insert ☺️. For the plain text ☺, copy it from this page.
  2. Copy ☺ here, then open Gboard settings → Dictionary → Personal dictionary and add it with a shortcut.

Microsoft Word

  1. Type 263A, then press Alt + X.
  2. Insert → Symbol → More Symbols. Set “from” to Unicode (hex), type 263A in “Character code” and click Insert.

Google Docs

  1. Insert → Special characters, then search for “smiling face” or draw it in the box.

Excel & Google Sheets

  1. Enter =UNICHAR(9786) in a cell. It works in Excel 2013 and later and in Google Sheets.

HTML

  1. Write ☺ or ☺ in your HTML.

What does ☺ mean?

The smiley face symbol ☺ (Unicode name WHITE SMILING FACE) is a vintage text character featuring an outlined circular head with two circular eyes and an upturned smiling mouth. Long before modern color emojis emerged on smartphones, ☺ was the defining digital face of personal computing. In 1981, IBM embedded ☺ at code position 1 in the IBM PC character set (code page 437). Holding down the Alt key and typing 1 on the numeric keypad produced ☺, making it the very first symbol PC owners learned to type.

The design itself draws inspiration from commercial artist Harvey Ball’s iconic 1963 yellow smiley face and computer scientist Scott Fahlman’s 1982 proposal to use punctuation emoticons :-) on message boards. Unicode incorporated ☺ in version 1.1 in 1993 in the Miscellaneous Symbols block. Unlike the colorful modern emoji 😊 or 🙂, ☺ is an authentic typographical glyph that seamlessly scales with surrounding text and adopts your active font color, whether black, white, gold, or neon.

Today, ☺ remains a beloved retro design element in developer documentation, gaming handles, ASCII art, terminal applications, and casual email sign-offs. It brings a nostalgic, warm aesthetic to interfaces without loading heavy image files or emoji fonts. If you want phones to show it as a colorful yellow emoji rather than plain text, append the emoji variation selector (U+FE0F) to render ☺️.

Common uses

  • Friendly email and chat sign-offs: Thank you for your help ☺
  • Retro gaming handles, gamer tags, and forum signatures
  • Terminal-based user interfaces and CLI progress indicators
  • Simple customer satisfaction ratings (☺ vs ☹)

Smiley Face Symbol codes for HTML, CSS and programming

Every code below produces ☺. Use the HTML entity in web pages, the CSS escape in content, and the escape sequence in source code.

Unicode code pointU+263A
HTML decimal☺
HTML hex☺
CSS contentcontent: "\263A";
JavaScript"\u263A"
Python"\u263A"
Python (by name)"\N{WHITE SMILING FACE}"
Java / C#"\u263A"
UTF-8 bytesE2 98 BA
UTF-16263A
URL encoded%E2%98%BA
Alt code (CP437)Alt + 1

☺ vs look-alike characters

These characters look similar to ☺ but have a different meaning and code. Pasting the wrong one can break search, sorting and screen readers.

CharNameWhen to use it
Smiling Face
U+263B		Black smiling face (U+263B, Alt + 2), featuring a solid filled head with inverted eyes.
White Frowning Face
U+2639		White frowning face (U+2639), depicting sadness or disappointment.
Slightly Smiling Face
U+1F642		Slightly smiling face emoji, which renders in full yellow color.
Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes
U+1F60A		Smiling face with smiling eyes emoji, expressing deeper warmth.

Symbols similar to ☺

Click to copy, or open a symbol for its codes.

  • Details

☺ character properties

Official Unicode name
WHITE SMILING FACE
Also known as
white smiling face, happy face symbol, text smiley, alt 1 smiley
Code point
U+263A
Unicode block
Miscellaneous Symbols (U+2600–U+26FF)
General category
Other symbol (So)
Added in
Unicode 1.1 (1993)
Plane
Basic Multilingual Plane (0)
Emoji
Has an emoji form: ☺️ (add U+FE0F)

Frequently asked questions

What is the alt code for the smiley face?

On Windows, hold Alt and press 1 on the numeric keypad to type ☺. Alt + 2 produces the filled black smiley face ☻.

Why does ☺ look like plain text on my computer but an emoji on my phone?

☺ is encoded as a text glyph (U+263A). Some mobile operating systems automatically convert it to an emoji. Adding variation selector U+FE0E forces monochrome text presentation.

What is the alt code for the smiley face symbol?

On Windows, hold Alt and type 1 on the numeric keypad to get ☺. On a laptop without a keypad, copy it from this page or use 263A then Alt + X in Word.

How do I type the smiley face symbol on a Mac?

There is no single Option shortcut for ☺ on the US layout. Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search for “smiling face” and double-click it, or copy it from this page.

What is the HTML code for the smiley face symbol?

☺ has no named HTML entity. Use the numeric reference ☺ or ☺, or paste the character directly into a UTF-8 page.

What is the Unicode for the smiley face symbol?

☺ is U+263A, officially named WHITE SMILING FACE, in the Miscellaneous Symbols block. It has been part of Unicode since version 1.1 (1993).