The keycap: * is the star button from your phone keypad, dressed up as a chunky, tappable emoji. It brings instant "press star to continue" energy—think customer service mazes, IVR menus, and throwback star codes like *67 to hide your caller ID or *69 to call back (aka retro life hacks). Online, it doubles as the dramatic-action marker for chat roleplay—*whispers*, *slow clap*, *teleports behind you*—and the louder, more playful cousin of the plain asterisk you’d use for typos, footnotes, italics, or wildcard searches. It also pops up for cheeky censorship (f***), sarcastic disclaimers, and that wink-wink “terms and conditions apply” vibe.
On Apple devices, it’s a bold white six-point asterisk centered on a glossy blue rounded square with a soft gradient and a slight drop shadow—basically a press-me-now dialer key. You’ll instantly recognize it as the star that lives beside 0 and across from the hashtag keycap #️⃣, radiating phone UI nostalgia. In memes and tweets, it says “tap for more drama,” fuels *NSYNC-era callbacks, and turns any sentence into a footnote with attitude. It’s the star you hit when you need emphasis, irony, or a little telecom theater.
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
This emoji first appeared in OSX / iOS after the iOS 9 update.
