What do the arrows on the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and data icons that appear on your mobile phone mean ?

These icons can be difficult to interpret, but very important for your daily life!

Nowadays, phones are becoming more and more complicated. How far away are the days when these devices were only used for calling and sending text messages! Today, our smartphones are truly intelligent and capable of many possibilities.

This is why your phone's icon bar may now seem very cluttered. While some acronyms are fairly easy to interpret, there are others that are more enigmatic. This is particularly the case for acronyms relating to: your Wifi, Bluetooth and data transfer coming from and arriving on your phone.

Let's first talk about the Wifi symbol. In the form of small arcs of circles stacked in the shape of an inverted triangle, this symbol is fairly well-known to all. What is less well-known, however, is the appearance of a small number that sometimes appears next to your Wifi symbol, as well as small downward or upward arrows. For the number, know that it is simply the standard of Wifi that you currently have: Wifi 4, Wifi 6, Wifi 6e, etc… To make it short: the higher this number, the more recent and theoretically better the standard that your phone uses.

Concerning the small downward or upward arrows next to the Wifi symbol, they are simply used to show you that data is being received or sent on your phone. This is particularly useful for ensuring that something you are sending is actually going out or not.

The Bluetooth symbol is, on the other hand, easier to interpret. Made up of small triangles that join together, it generally only appears when you have an active Bluetooth connection. Whether it's a speaker, a watch or headphones, if the Bluetooth symbol is displayed on your mobile, it means that the latter is activated and can be connected to a nearby device.

Finally, the mobile data symbol is certainly the one you will see the most on a daily basis with the status of your battery. This mobile data simply depends on the quality of your connection: none, Edge, 3G, 4G or 5G, from the worst to the the best connection for sending and receiving calls, messages and internet data.