The UAE's new dirham symbol became part of the Unicode standard on September 16, 2026. Your phone and laptop will take longer. Here is the expected date for each one, and how to use the symbol today.
The UAE dirham symbol joined the Unicode standard on September 16, 2026, the day Unicode 18.0 published. That was the confirmed date, and we covered the decision that set it. The symbol has its permanent code, the public comment window closed on July 7, 2026, and nothing about it changed along the way.
Joining the standard and reaching your keyboard are two different things. As of September 25, 2026, no phone, computer or keyboard maker has shipped or scheduled the second one, so the next section estimates it.
| Milestone | When |
|---|---|
| Symbol unveiled | March 2025 |
| Submitted to the Unicode Consortium | 2025 |
| Codepoint U+20C3 assigned by the Unicode Technical Committee | July 22, 2025 |
| Published in the public beta | May 26, 2026 |
| Comment window closed, symbol unchanged | July 7, 2026 |
| Unicode 18.0 published | September 16, 2026 |
| On phones and laptops | 2027 (our estimate) |
| Platform | Expected |
|---|---|
| Apps and sites with their own font | Live already |
| Samsung Galaxy | Around March 2027 |
| iPhone, iPad, Mac | March or April 2027 |
| Windows | Late 2027 or later |
| Android (Pixel) | Late 2027 at the earliest |
| A dedicated keyboard key | No date yet |
Our estimates from the Unicode 17.0 rollout, not platform announcements. Method below.
Unicode 17.0 published on September 9, 2025, and we tracked how long each platform took to draw its new characters. Unicode 18.0 published almost exactly a year later, so each measured gap maps straight onto the dirham.
| Platform | Unicode 17.0 took |
|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy | 5.5 months |
| iPhone, iPad, Mac | 6.5 months |
| Windows | 11.5 months, still rolling out |
| Android (Pixel) | Over 12 months, unfinished |
Based on how Unicode 17.0 rolled out, expect the dirham symbol on major phones and laptops during 2027, our estimate from the pattern rather than a platform announcement.
Two things could move the real dates. The 17.0 gaps were measured on the emoji set, which rides one dedicated font, while a currency sign has to reach the system text fonts in every weight. And the Saudi riyal sign (U+20C1), encoded a full year earlier, reached Windows 11's Arabic keyboards in December 2025 and the iPhone keyboard in March 2026, while a request to add it to Google's Noto Arabic fonts is still open.
Until then, copy the symbol from our dirham sign page. We update this page the day a platform ships support.
The character already exists, so there is nothing to wait for. Copy it from our dirham sign page and paste it where you need it. The code travels with the paste, so the text stays correct even on a device that cannot draw the shape yet.
On most devices today it appears as an empty box. That is a missing font, not a broken character. The box turns into the symbol the moment the device gets a font that includes it. If you run a website or an app, you can load a font that has the glyph and show it correctly to everyone right now.
For the currency symbols your keyboard already draws, our currency symbols library has the dollar, euro, pound, yen, rupee and dozens more, each one click to copy. Our alt codes page covers typing symbols that have no key of their own.
People mix the Saudi riyal sign up with this one. It is already live. It joined Unicode in September 2025, a full version earlier.
Three Gulf currencies are on three different clocks right now. Our Middle East currency symbol scorecard tracks all of them in one place.
The UAE Central Bank unveiled the symbol in March 2025, designed around the national flag, and sent it to the Unicode Consortium, the body that decides which characters computers can store. The bank's style guide asks for the symbol on the number-6 key. That is a request to keyboard makers, not a change any of them has shipped.
Three terms show up in coverage of this. A codepoint is the permanent number that identifies a character: the dirham's is U+20C3, named UAE DIRHAM SIGN, assigned by the Unicode Technical Committee on July 22, 2025. Approved for encoding means the committee agreed to add it. A public beta is the draft release anyone may object to, and the dirham appeared in Unicode 18.0's beta on May 26, 2026 alongside the Omani rial and Maldivian rufiyaa signs, then came through unchanged.
Unicode 18.0 carries 13,007 new characters in total. Our guide to how new Unicode symbols get approved walks the whole pipeline.
One click copies the new dirham sign, with the Omani rial and Maldivian rufiyaa alongside it.
Open the Dirham Sign Page โReported by The National (May 27, 2026) and The National (February 27, 2026), with additional coverage from Time Out Dubai. The September 16, 2026 publication and the final name, U+20C3 UAE DIRHAM SIGN, come from the Consortium's own Unicode 18.0 announcement, and tbreak reported on September 23, 2026 that Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft still had to add it. The Saudi riyal sign's Windows shortcut is in Microsoft's KB5070311 release notes, and its arrival on the iPhone keyboard rests on users' own posts from March 24, 2026 on X and Instagram.