The digit 3 on a keycap. It stands for three, third place, or the third step.
It often starts a countdown, 3️⃣2️⃣1️⃣, before a launch, a reveal or a jump. People also use it for third options, three-part plans, and 'three days left' reminders.
Facts
Keycap: 3 3️⃣ is an emoji in the symbols category, under keycap. It is one of the early emoji from Japanese phones, standardized in Unicode 6.0 (2010). On GitHub, Slack and other apps you can type it as :three: or :keycap_3:. People also look for it with words like “3”, “keycap”, or “three”.
Timeline
2010Added to the emoji standard (Unicode 6.0)
Design history
Google (Noto)
2015
2017
2021
Google Noto Emoji images: Apache 2.0. Twemoji graphics by X Corp and contributors: CC-BY 4.0.