The right arrow curving up is the digital way to say, “swerve and rise.” It starts by heading right, then hooks upward like it just saw a better opportunity and took the high road. People drop it to point at a message above, signal a sudden change of plans, or show a glow-up energy—like, we were going this direction, but actually we’re leveling up now. It can read as playful (“plot twist!”), motivational (“up we go!”), or even slightly chaotic (“detour, but make it dramatic”). In sarcastic mode, it’s the perfect “anyway… moving on” arrow when a convo needs an elegant escape ramp.
On Apple/iOS, this emoji is a bold, glossy blue glyph with a thick, rounded shaft that runs right, then makes a clean 90-ish degree bend upward, ending in a sharp triangular tip. The smooth curve and rich gradient blue make it feel like a friendly UI element—crisp, modern, instantly recognizable in text threads. Think of it as the arrow equivalent of a skateboard kickturn or a freeway on-ramp: you were cruising, then whoosh—upward trajectory. It often shows up in captions to redirect attention, in memes to mark the “unexpected upgrade,” or in flirty contexts to hint that a chat is about to escalate. TL;DR: it’s the go-right-then-glow-up symbol of the group chat.
Definition
And rightfully so. This is the 'are you sure you should be doing that if there truly is a god' arrow.
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
This emoji first appeared in OSX / iOS after the iOS 5 update.
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)
667 of 2393
Apple/iOS Picture
Google Android Picture
Google Hangouts Picture
Twitter.com Picture
LG Emoji Picture
Samsung Emoji Picture
Phantom Open Emoji Picture
Not created yet
ASCII Conversion
"Short Code" Name
:arrow_heading_up:
Keywords
Previous Names:
Arrow Pointing Rightwards Then Curving Upwards
Unicode Category Information
Unicode Category
Supplemental Arrows-B
Unicode Range
2900–297F
Unicode Subcategory
Miscellaneous Curved Arrows
Proposed Unicode Information & Notes
Unicode Category
Abstract Concepts
Unicode Subcategory
Arrows
Names & Annotations
ARROW POINTING RIGHTWARDS THEN CURVING UPWARDS Temporary Notes: From the left curving upward ("Good")
