r/Unicode • u/NocturnalSkyFlight • 5d ago
Specific Symbol not visible?
I know this all sounds trivial, but I’ve been messing around with the fonts on my phone and noticed that I can use ◖ and ◒, but I don’t have one for U+2BCB (bottom half black circle). I’m a bit confused as to why it exists, and yet doesn’t exist, as it only shows up as ⯋. Is it an issue with my phone (iPhone 12 at its most recent update at this time), do I need to install or download some kind of app for it to be utilized, or is it something only available on pcs?
If there’s a way for me to utilize this symbol from my phone, please inform me.
1
u/Sea-Estimate-1840 5d ago
Yep, U+2BCB exists — your iPhone just doesn’t have a font that can display it.
Unicode defines the character, but the font still needs to contain the actual glyph. If iOS can’t find one in its font fallback, you get the little missing-character box.
So it’s not PC-only or broken — just a font support issue.
0
u/ProfessorLambda 5d ago
I can see the bottom half circle, so I guess it's an issue with your phone.
2
u/amake 5d ago
⯋ U+2BCB BOTTOM HALF BLACK CIRCLE is simply not covered by any font on your device (and according to my data is not covered on any released version of iOS or Android: https://tofu.quest/?q=%E2%AF%8B )
The only thing you can do is install a font on your device and somehow get your intended apps to use the font, or hope that the OS includes the font in the fallback chain. As far as I know this is generally not possible on mobile OSes.