Symbols for your Instagram bio

Symbol or emoji?

The difference shows on screen. An emoji is colorful and its design changes from one device to the next. A symbol is a character from the Unicode table: it takes on the text color and looks more restrained. On a law firm, clinic or luxury brand profile, ✦ and → come across as more sober than 🔥 and 👇. On a comedy profile, the opposite is true.

Three uses that work in a bio

• Line bullet: start each line with the same sign, like • or →, and your bio turns into a quick-read list.
• Arrow to your link: ↓ or ⤷ on the last line points at the address right below it.
• Divider: a short line between what you do and your call to action splits the text with no extra words.

Fewer symbols read better

Pick one symbol and repeat it. A bio mixing stars, hearts, arrows and flowers looks messy and wastes characters. Each symbol counts as one character, and long dividers eat a good chunk of a bio's 150. On a phone screen a very long line can wrap in two, so lean toward short ones and check after pasting. The character counter tells you what you have left.

Not every device draws everything

Rare signs can turn into an empty box on older systems. The basics, like ★, ♡, →, ✓ and •, are the safest. Screen readers either read a symbol's name aloud or skip it, so a row of stars can become "star, star, star". Use a few and never put information in the symbol alone.

If the symbol is the finishing touch, the words come first. Start with the bio generator and highlight a line with the fancy text generator. For gamertags, the Japanese signs pair well with the username generator.