What Does the Symbol to the Left of My Battery Bar on My iPhone Mean?

With the introduction of iOS 7 in 2013, the status bar at the top of your iPhone's Home screen became much more simple than it was in previous versions of the operating system. Typically, only the signal strength, carrier name, time and battery status are consistently displayed. From time to time, however, you may notice that an additional icon pops up.

A majority of the icons that are displayed in your status bar will be fairly self-explanatory. For example, an alarm clock silhouette signifies a set alarm and the Bluetooth logo indicates a connected Bluetooth signal. Varying levels of rounded bars indicate your Wi-Fi signal strength, while a spinning arrow appears during syncing. As of iOS 7, there are 20 such symbols that may be displayed in the status bar. For a complete list of iPhone notification icons, refer to the device's user manual.

If you have missed a notification or are unsure about an icon's meaning, you can typically review alerts and get more information by opening the Notification Center. Simply swipe downward from the top edge of the screen to access a variety of information -- including missed alerts, a summary of today's events, weather and traffic news, plus a quick view of what's to come tomorrow.