Check Box With Check Emoji

A checkbox with a check mark inside it. ☑️ is the "quiet confirmation" of the emoji world: formal, restrained, task-oriented. Where ✅ shouts "DONE!" with green enthusiasm, ☑️ calmly ticks a box and moves on.

Approved in Unicode 1.1 (1993) under the name "Ballot Box with Check" and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015. That 22-year gap matters: the character existed as plain text for over two decades before it got emoji presentation. Many platforms still default to a text rendering unless you explicitly add the variation selector (U+FE0F).

The name itself is slightly misleading. "Ballot box" sounds like it belongs in a voting booth, but in practice, ☑️ shows up in to-do lists, forms, surveys, and checklists far more than in any political context. Emojipedia notes that it "should not be confused with the similarly named 🗳️ Ballot Box With Ballot," which actually depicts a voting scenario.

One of the stranger footnotes: Twitter/X bans ☑️ from display names along with ✅ and ✔️ to prevent users from mimicking the platform's verification badge. A checkbox emoji is apparently close enough to a blue circle with a white tick to cause confusion.

☑️ lives in the space between casual texting and formal writing. It's rare in group chats (people prefer ✅ or just "done"), but it thrives in structured content.

Workplace tools. ☑️ is the de facto task completion emoji in Slack, Microsoft Teams, and project management apps. In Slack's own documentation, check emojis are recommended as reactions for marking requests as handled. Teams add ☑️ reactions to messages to signal "taken care of" without cluttering a thread.

Social media checklists. Influencers and brands use ☑️ as a visual bullet point: "☑️ Packed ☑️ Booked ☑️ Ready." It reads as more understated than ✅, which some creators prefer for a cleaner aesthetic.

Texting. When someone sends ☑️ in a message, it typically means "noted" or "will do" with a slightly more formal tone than a thumbs up. A 2025 Grammarly survey found that 76% of knowledge workers use emojis in workplace messaging daily, and check-style emojis rank among the most common reactions.

The check mark itself traces back to ancient Rome. Citizens marked their choices with the letter V, short for "veritas" (truth). Because writing implements of the era didn't start flowing immediately, the left stroke of the V was shorter, and over centuries of fast handwriting, that lopsided V evolved into the modern tick/check shape.

The earliest evidence of check-like marks for administrative purposes goes even further back: ancient Babylonian tablets show small indentations made with a stylus next to workers' names, marking that rations had been issued.

The checkbox as a UI element appeared in the 1980s with early graphical interfaces. Apple's original Macintosh (1984) and Microsoft Windows 1.0 (1985) both used square boxes with check marks for form selections. Unicode encoded U+2611 BALLOT BOX WITH CHECK in version 1.1 (1993), preserving the paper-form convention for digital text. It waited until 2015 to get emoji presentation via Emoji 1.0.

1. 1993Encoded as U+2611 BALLOT BOX WITH CHECK in Unicode 1.1
2. 2003Included in WGL4 character set, ensuring cross-platform font support
3. 2015Added to Emoji 1.0, gaining colorful emoji presentation on mobile platforms
4. 2016Samsung redesigned their version, removing the physical ballot box imagery in favor of a cleaner checkbox
5. 2018Twitter banned ☑️ from display names to prevent verification badge impersonation

• •The check mark traces back to ancient Rome, where citizens marked choices with a "V" for "veritas" (truth). Fast handwriting shortened the left stroke, creating the modern tick shape over centuries.
• •In Japan, Sweden, Finland, and South Korea, a check mark means wrong or incorrect. Japanese teachers use a circle (◯) for correct answers instead.
• •The earliest known use of check-like marks for completion tracking appears on ancient Babylonian tablets: scribes indented marks next to workers' names to confirm rations had been distributed.
• •Americans call it a "check mark," Brits call it a "tick," Filipinos say "checkmark" (one word), and Indians say "tickmark." Same symbol, four names.
• •☑️ existed as a Unicode text character for 22 years (1993-2015) before getting emoji presentation. Most emojis are born colorful. This one had to earn it.
• •Twitter/X bans ☑️ from display names alongside 20+ other emojis (including blue diamonds 🔹, the nazar amulet 🧿, and all lock emojis 🔒) to prevent verification badge impersonation.
• •A 2025 Grammarly survey found that 76% of knowledge workers use emojis in workplace messaging tools daily, with check mark emojis ranking among the most common Slack reactions for task acknowledgment.
• •Samsung's original design for ☑️ actually included a ballot box, staying literal to the Unicode name. Later redesigns moved to the cleaner checkbox style used by other vendors.
• •The "☑️ vs ✅" distinction is one of the most commonly confused in the emoji set. Quick rule: ✅ celebrates. ☑️ documents.