This little red tile drops the vibe of “hush-hush, for your eyes only.” It shows the Japanese kanji 秘 (hi), meaning “secret,” often seen in Japan on TV teasers and mystery promos. On Apple devices it’s a bright red square with rounded corners and a glossy gradient, sporting a thick, crisp white 秘 centered like a stamped seal—clean, bold, unmistakable. You’ll recognize it as the digital equivalent of sliding a manila folder across a table and whispering, “Don’t tell anyone I showed you this.”
Online, it’s used as a spoiler siren, a coy “I know something you don’t,” or a gentle gatekeeping wink. People drop it before sharing tea in DMs, to label leaks (ironically), and to tease product drops or surprise announcements without giving the game away. It works flirtatiously too—“I’ve got a secret” energy—or as comedic NDA mode when you’re pretending to be bound by top-secret clauses about brunch plans. Pair it with the shushing face, zipper-mouth, or lock emoji for maximum classified-document drama.
Culturally, the circled version ㊙ pops up in Japanese media for “secret recipe” (㊙レシピ), mystery reveals, and blackout-style censored hints—so the emoji taps into that TV-game-show suspense. It’s also great for “close friends only” posts, spoiler-safe live-tweeting, or hinting at a project that’s still under wraps. Use it when you want to be mysterious, dramatic, or just delightfully annoying about not spilling the beans.
Definition
An ideograph that means secret. An ideogram (pictogram or ideograph) is a symbol or picture used to communicate a concept or idea.
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
This emoji was part of the proprietary / non-standardized emoji set first introduced by Japanese carriers like Softbank. These emojis became part of the Apple iPhone starting in iOS 2.2 as an unlockable feature on handsets sold in English speaking countries.
In iOS 5 / OSX 10.7, the underlying code that the Apple OS generates for this emoji was changed.
The code generated for this emoji was changed slightly in iOS 7 / OSX 10.9 (a variation selector was added) advising the OS to display character emoji style instead of black and white text when available. We don't mind Apple, thank you! We just love our emojis! [Sources 11438-emoji-var.pdf 13.7 Variation Selectors (unicode.org)]
Emoji General Information
Twitter Emoji Popularity (Rank)
1032 of 2393
Apple/iOS Picture
Google Android Picture
Google Hangouts Picture
Twitter.com Picture
LG Emoji Picture
Samsung Emoji Picture
Phantom Open Emoji Picture
ASCII Conversion
"Short Code" Name
:secret:
Keywords
Previous Names:
Circled Ideograph Secret Japanese "Secret" Button
Top Secret
