U+231B · emoji since 2010
The hourglass with all its sand at the bottom means time is up. It means deadlines passed, the wait is over, and the moment has come.
It marks endings and countdowns reaching zero, the final grain dropped and time fully spent.
In texting, ⌛️ does not carry a widely used hidden or slang meaning, so you can usually take it at face value. People send it just as it looks, to add a little visual touch or set the mood of a message. Only a handful of emoji have a separate texting code, and ⌛️ is not really one of them.
Its official Unicode name is the Hourglass Done emoji. In everyday chat most people just call it the hourglass done emoji or describe what it shows. Copy and paste it from the button at the top of this page.
The ⌛️ leads off a short phrase, and the rest of the words are written in cipher, every letter disguised as another emoji. Tap decipher to reveal the whole line.
Or make your own cipher in the translator.