The SOS button is the digital equivalent of waving both arms and yelling “Send help!”—except cuter and way more shareable. It channels the classic distress signal SOS (yep, the Morse code one: ... --- ...), but on your keyboard it’s the go-to for dramatic flare-ups like “my Wi‑Fi died mid‑Zoom” or “I spilled coffee on my white shirt 5 minutes before the meeting.” It shows up in texts as a playful panic alarm, a meme-worthy cry for backup, or a sarcastic overreaction when your fries arrive without sauce. Pair it with 🚨 or 🫠 for extra chaos energy.
On Apple/iOS, the emoji looks like a glossy, front-facing red rounded square with crisp white “SOS” letters centered in bold sans-serif—high contrast, high urgency, zero subtlety. The red has that polished gradient Apple loves, almost like a big emergency tile you’d hesitate to press IRL. People recognize it instantly in group chats as “I require assistance (emotionally or logistically) ASAP,” or as a joke-y bat signal for friends to call and rescue you from an awkward hang. It’s also linked in our brains to iPhone’s Emergency SOS feature and that ominous “SOS Only” status, so the vibe can range from playful panic to serious ping depending on context.
Online, it thrives in meme culture for deadline meltdowns, gaming wipeouts, or relationship plot twists (“He texted ‘k.’ SOS.”). Used flirtatiously, it can mean “come save me from boredom,” and sarcastically it translates to “This is fine…but actually not fine.”
Definition
SOS is the international Morse code for distress. Help us! Save us!
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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.
Emoji General Information
Twitter Emoji Popularity (Rank)
952 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
:sos:
Keywords
Previous Names:
Squared SOS SOS Button
Unicode Category Information
Unicode Category
Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement
Unicode Range
1F173–1F1FF
Unicode Subcategory
Squared Latin Letter Sequences
Proposed Unicode Information & Notes
Unicode Category
Abstract Concepts
Unicode Subcategory
Square Latin Letters
Names & Annotations
SQUARED SOS Old name: SOS SIGN = search, hunt for missing person
Symbol Information
U+1F198 proposed
Proposal Identifier
e-B4F
Character Mapping/Crosswalk Notes
DoCoMo
[SOS]
KDDI
#270 捜索(SOS) U+E4E8 SJIS-F6C1 JIS-7643
Softbank
[SOS]
Emoji Character Encoding Data
Emoji Code Version
iOS 5 - Current
UTF-8 Unicode Character(s)
🆘
UTF-8 Character Count
1
Character(s) In Input
AppleColorEmoji Font (available in OSX/iOS)
🆘
Decimal HTML Entity
🆘
Hexadecimal HTML Entity
🆘
Hex Code Point(s)
1f198
Formal Unicode Notation
U+1F198
Decimal Code Point(s)
127384
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)
0xF0 0x9F 0x86 0x98
UTF-8 Hex Bytes
F0 9F 86 98
UTF-8 Octal Bytes
360 237 206 230
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)
0xD83C 0xDD98
UTF-16 Hex
d83cdd98
UTF-16 Dec
55356 56728
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)
0x0001F198
UTF-32 Hex
01F198
UTF-32 Dec
127384
Python Src
u"\U0001F198"
PHP Src
"\xf0\x9f\x86\x98"
C/C++/Java Src
"\uD83C\uDD98"
Emoji Character Encoding Data (equivalent or similiar)
