What does ⚙️ Gear mean?
A gear or cogwheel. It stands for settings, mechanics, engineering and how things work. Because so many apps use a cog icon for settings, ⚙️ can mean “go to settings” or “adjust”. People also use it for processes, systems, automation and thinking hard, as in the gears turning in your head. A row of gears can suggest a machine running smoothly.
⚙️ Gear is an emoji from the Objects category (tools), added in Emoji 1.0 in 2015. People use it in messages about cog, cogwheel and tool.
Example messages
⚙️ Gear on Apple, Google, Microsoft & more
The code is the same everywhere, but every company draws its own artwork. This is how Gear looks on each platform.
More tools emojis
See all 28 →Gear emoji: questions & answers
How do I copy and paste the Gear emoji?
Press the Copy button at the top of this page and ⚙️ is copied to your clipboard. Then paste it anywhere with Ctrl+V, Cmd+V or a long press on your phone. In Slack, Discord and GitHub you can also type the shortcode :gear:.
When was the Gear emoji added?
⚙️ Gear was added in Emoji 1.0, released in 2015. It is supported on all current versions of iOS, Android, Windows and macOS.
Why does ⚙️ look different on my phone?
Every platform draws its own artwork for Gear. The underlying code (U+2699 U+FE0F) is the same everywhere, so the person you send it to always gets the same emoji, just in their device’s style. Compare the designs in the platform section above.