At the very top of your phone screen, you might see symbols you don't recognise. These are actually trying to help you, by giving you info on the status of your phone.

That's why we've created this article. It’s a summary of all those mysterious symbols. We’ve listed them below, explaining the most common phone symbols, symbols for connectivity, symbols with phones in them, and lots of other ones you might not be sure about…

What are the most common phone symbols?

Here’s an explanation of each one, going from left to right.

Connected to Wi-Fi
The small radar symbol means you’re connected to Wi-Fi. This is normally found in your house, at work or in coffee shops. It’s very fast and great for all types of internet activities, but only works when you’re in range of a Wi-Fi connection. The Wi-Fi signal strength is shown by the number of dark bars on the signal. And see those arrows on the bottom icon? Those mean you’re transferring data to (down arrow) or from (up your) your phone.

Using mobile data
Those four bars mean you’re using mobile data. And just like Wi-Fi, your signal strength is shown by the number of bars that have been darkened. You might also see an indication of whether you’re on 4G or 5G.

Battery life
That thing that looks like a battery? You’ve guessed it already. It’s your battery life, with levels indicated by dark bars. If you see an exclamation mark inside the battery, that means you’ve got less than 5% power left. If you can see a lightning volt type symbol inside it, that means your phone’s charging.

Symbols for connectivity

Bluetooth
This symbol tells you that Bluetooth is enable on your phone. Bluetooth is a wireless technology capable of sharing data over a short distance. You can use it to pair up your phone with wireless headphones, speakers and lots more devices.

NFC – also sometimes shown as a curvy capital N
This symbol shows that you have NFC, or Near Field Communication, turned on. NFC lets you share data with other NFC-enabled devices. It’s most commonly used to make payments using your smartphone or connect to devices like earphones, wireless speakers and other accessories.

Symbols with phones in them

If you see symbols around a mobile phone icon, here’s what might be going on:

• Exclamation mark inside a triangle - Your phone’s in safe mode.

• Curved arrows - Your phone is sharing media with devices nearby.

• A circle around the bottom - Your phone is using a docking station.

• A large rectangle behind it - Your phone is connected to a TV or monitor.

If you can see an old-school phone receiver (ah, remember them?), it’s something do with phone calls.

• Phone receiver at an angle - Your call is active.

• Phone receiver facing down - Your call has ended.

Here are some symbols alongside your receiver to look out for:

• 3G, 4G or 5G - Phone calls are going over that particular type of network.

• Pause icon - Two horizontal bars means your call is on hold.

• Arrow pointing right - Call forwarding is active.

• Curved soundwaves - You’re on speakerphone.

• Bent arrow - Missed call.

• Wi-Fi symbol - Your phone’s set up for Wi-Fi calling. If your phone doesn’t have a good reception, it’ll make phone calls using an available Wi-Fi network instead.

• Keyboard at the bottom - This means you’ve got a TTY accessibility feature turned on. TTY stands for teletypewriter – for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have trouble speaking. It means you can type messages instead of saying them, making communication easier.

Here are some other phone symbols you might be wondering about:

• A broken circle (sometimes with a plus sign in the middle) - A lot of people ask about this one. It means your data saver is turned on. This helps you save on your monthly mobile data allowance, and can be turned off and on in your data usage settings.

• Upside down teardrop - If you see this your GPS/location services are turned on. You need this if you want to use your phone for navigation. Maps, Pokémon GO – that sort of thing.

• SIM card with an ‘X’ or exclamation mark - Your phone isn’t detecting a SIM card. So either you haven’t got one, it’s been inserted incorrectly, or it’s faulty.

• Rectangle with curved lines in the corner - This is the Google Cast symbol. You’ll see it if you’re casting images or videos onto your smart TV.

• Speaker with a line through it - Your phone is on silent mode, so any incoming alerts or notifications won’t make a sound.

• Square with mountains inside - This means you’ve captured a screenshot. If you’ve taken it by accident, you’ll find the image in your gallery, which can easily be deleted.

• Star - The star symbol shows that Priority Mode is active. With Priority Mode turned on, you won’t get any notifications unless you’ve added select contacts to your priority list in the settings.

• 5G - This 5th generation network is the newest and most powerful mobile network. It’s 100 times faster than 4G and is much more reliable, offering more effective connectivity than ever before. It’s suitable for all internet activities like video streaming, movie downloading, video calls and so on. But remember that downloading things over 5G will use up your data quicker.

• 4G - 4G is almost as fast as the Wi-Fi connection at your home or office. You can use it for streaming and downloading, but it’s nowhere near as fast as 5G.

• 3G - With 3G, web browsers load up fairly quickly you can stream music. It’s not really fast enough for video streaming or downloading though.

• Capital H - H is a faster form of 3G. Speeds make music streaming more reliable, but you’ll need lots of patience if you want to download a movie. Streaming anything longer than a few minutes might also take a lot of time.

• Capital H+ - H+ is the next step up from H, but still not as fast as a 4G connection by quite a way. Downloads are more practical and video streaming is much more reliable.

• VoLTE (or two horizontal arrows pointing in opposite directions) - You’ll see this symbol if your mobile network is using Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services. The new technology uses your 4G or 5G signal to make voice calls, giving you better coverage, especially indoors, and better call quality.

• R (or triangle) next to signal bars - The capital ‘R’ that appears next to the signal bars on phones is the data roaming symbol. When you see it, it means your phone’s connected to a network that isn’t its regular one. Without roaming you won’t be able to use mobile internet while out of the country. It can be turned on an off in your phone’s network settings.

Need any help?

Thinking of upgrading your phone? Check out our guide to the latest 5G smartphones. If you’d like to chat to an expert, pop in-store or have a video chat using ShopLive. And don’t forget, we’ve got loads of phone accessories to help you get the most out of your mobile.