UAE Dirham Symbol Officially Debuts in Unicode 18.0 to Ease Keyboard Integration

The official UAE dirham symbol has been included in Unicode's version 18.0, paving the way for computer and smartphone manufacturers to integrate it directly onto keyboards. Based in California, Unicode serves as the leading technology industry organization responsible for standardising digital characters and emojis across billions of devices.

Last week, the organisation highlighted the UAE dirham symbol as one of the most anticipated new characters in version 18.0, alongside the Omani riyal and the Maldivian rufiyaa. While the inclusion means developers can now select the symbol more easily, actual availability on devices ultimately depends on tech companies adopting the latest Unicode update.

Unicode's 18.0 update introduces 13,007 new characters, including nine new emojis. A Unicode blog entry noted that although monetary authorities authorised these symbols for public use over a year ago, their adoption was previously hindered by the lack of standardised encoding. With Unicode 18.0, vendors can finally implement support for them.

According to Unicode's 1,100-page core specification document, the UAE dirham sign was unveiled by the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates on March 27, 2025. Featuring two horizontal lines inspired by the UAE flag, the design embodies the financial and monetary stability of the currency.

Assigned the code point identifier U+20C3 by Unicode, the symbol helps programmers encode it within software and devices. The UAE Central Bank applied to Unicode following the symbol's creation last year, which aimed to bolster the nation's status as a global financial centre. The bank's submission letter confirmed the glyph was original and free of specific font licensing requirements.

The UAE Central Bank also released a style guideline in 2025 suggesting the symbol appear on the number 6 key on keyboards, though final implementation remains with keyboard manufacturers. Meanwhile, the Unicode Consortium noted that the new currency symbols are only a small part of version 18.0, which brings the total number of encoded characters to 172,808.