On some Android devices, the Heart symbol is missing.

Question

I use the ❤ symbol in my Android widgets , but on some Android 2.x devices and on Android 2.x emulators I got a square symbol like this □ instead of ❤

What would you recommend to me? I am thinking of using a custom font with this character ...

Maybe some companies just remove optional characters from system fonts?

Answer 1

Fonts shipped with Android do not contain a heart symbol; even Droid Sans Pro fonts available at an additional cost do not have it.

If you need only one special character that is not covered by common fonts, it is best to use an image for it. Create an image with a large character (say, 5 or 10 times the total font size of the text) and use scaling to copy the size of the text.

There are free fonts containing the “❤” symbol, but it makes no sense to use a font (usually a large font that must be served in different font formats) to display a single character.

Answer 2

Well, I just downloaded a custom font, or perhaps even a newer version of the Android default font used in later devices ... Or you can even get away with displaying a picture depending on what you are doing and what your goals are ...