— the 160th anniversary of the very first public Morse telegraph transmission — the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) quietly made history by approving the addition of a single new character: the @ symbol, commonly known as the “at sign.”
It was the first and only update to the International Morse Code alphabet in over sixty years, and it happened for a surprisingly modern reason: email.
Meet the “Commat”: Where Old-World Telegraphy Met the Internet Age
The new Morse code character for @ was given the official name “commat,” a clever portmanteau of “commercial at.” But what makes it truly ingenious is how it was constructed. Rather than inventing an entirely new pattern of dots and dashes, the ITU designers merged the Morse sequences for the letters A (·−) and C (−·−·) into a single, unbroken signal: ·−−·−· (dot-dash-dash-dot-dash-dot). In effect, the commat is the letters A and C run together without the usual pause between them — an elegant nod to the @ symbol’s own visual resemblance to a lowercase “a” wrapped inside a “c.”
This made the commat the longest single character in the entire Morse code alphabet, requiring six elements to transmit — twice as long as it would take to simply spell out “A-T” in separate Morse characters. But for the amateur radio operators who pushed for the change, efficiency was not the point. Accuracy was. Before the commat existed, ham radio operators who wanted to share an email address over Morse code had no standardized way to represent the @ symbol. Some improvised by spelling out the word “at,” while others used unofficial workarounds that varied from one operator to the next. The result was confusion and errors, especially across international boundaries where language barriers compounded the problem.
Why Did Morse Code Need an Update After 60 Years?
To understand why this seemingly small addition mattered so much, you need to understand the world that Morse code still inhabits today. While most people think of Morse code as a relic of the 19th century — something associated with Samuel Morse, sinking ships, and wartime intelligence — it never actually disappeared. Millions of amateur radio enthusiasts around the globe, known as “hams,” continue to use Morse code (or “CW,” for continuous wave) as their preferred mode of communication. For many, it remains the most reliable way to get a signal through when conditions are poor, because Morse code can cut through static and interference that would render voice communication unintelligible.
By the early 2000s, the internet had become a part of daily life, and email addresses had become as essential as phone numbers. Ham radio operators naturally wanted to exchange email addresses during their Morse code conversations. But International Morse Code — the standardized version governed by the ITU — had no provision for the @ symbol. The code’s character set had been designed for an era of telegrams and maritime distress signals, not email addresses and URLs. The gap between the 19th-century code and the 21st-century world had finally become too wide to ignore.
A Brief History of Morse Code: From Telegraph Wires to the Digital Age
Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail developed the original Morse code in the 1830s and 1840s as a companion to the electric telegraph. On May 24, 1844, Morse sent the famous first telegraph message — “What hath God wrought” — from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. The system assigned unique combinations of short signals (dots) and long signals (dashes) to each letter of the alphabet, each numeral, and a handful of punctuation marks. Within decades, telegraph wires crisscrossed continents and ocean floors, and Morse code became the lingua franca of long-distance communication.
The code was standardized internationally in 1865 at the International Telegraph Conference in Paris, and it underwent its last major revisions in the early 20th century. During both World Wars, Morse code served as a critical military tool — used by soldiers, spies, sailors, and aviators to transmit orders, intelligence, and distress signals. The famous SOS distress signal (···−−−···) became universally recognized, and stories of brave radio operators tapping out desperate messages from sinking vessels entered the popular imagination.
After World War II, the code was considered complete. Technology moved on — first to teletype machines, then to satellite communications, then to the internet. Commercial telegraphy services gradually shut down. The U.S. Navy stopped using Morse code in 1995, and the French Navy sent its final Morse message in 1997, poignantly signing off with the words “Calling all. This is our last cry before our eternal silence.” By the turn of the millennium, it seemed as though Morse code would drift quietly into obsolescence, a historical curiosity preserved only in museum exhibits and Boy Scout handbooks.
But amateur radio operators had other plans.
The Decision That Bridged Two Centuries of Communication
The push for the commat came from the amateur radio community, which lobbied the ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau for years. The timing of the official approval was no coincidence: May 24, 2004, was carefully chosen to honor the 160th anniversary of Morse’s original demonstration. In approving the commat, the ITU acknowledged something profound — that even the oldest communication technologies can evolve to stay relevant in a changing world.
The decision also carried symbolic weight. The @ symbol is arguably the defining character of the internet age — the one symbol that every email address on the planet requires. By grafting this thoroughly modern character onto a code invented before the American Civil War, the ITU created a small but meaningful bridge between the era of the telegraph key and the era of the keyboard. The commat stands as a testament to the enduring utility of Morse code and the ingenuity of the community that refuses to let it die.
Morse Code Is Far From Dead
The addition of the commat underscores a larger truth: Morse code is far more alive than most people realize. Beyond the amateur radio community, Morse code has found unexpected new applications in the modern world. Google integrated Morse code input into its Gboard keyboard for Android and iOS, allowing people with limited mobility to type using just two inputs — a dot and a dash. Accessibility advocates have embraced it as a powerful communication tool for individuals who cannot use conventional keyboards or touchscreens.
Emergency services still recognize the value of Morse code in disaster scenarios where modern communication infrastructure has been destroyed. When hurricanes, earthquakes, or other catastrophes knock out cell towers and internet connections, ham radio operators using Morse code are often among the first to re-establish communication links. The simplicity of the system — requiring nothing more than a transmitter, a receiver, and a human brain — makes it remarkably resilient in ways that sophisticated digital systems are not.
So the next time you type an email address and your finger lands on the @ key, consider this: that humble symbol carries a hidden double life. In the digital world, it is the essential glue that connects a username to a domain. But in the world of Morse code, it is a six-element sequence of dots and dashes — the youngest member of an alphabet that has been connecting human beings across vast distances for nearly two centuries. The commat is proof that even in the age of fiber optics and 5G, the steady rhythm of dot-dash-dash-dot-dash-dot still has something to say.