What is the Phone and Keyboard looking icon at the Top of My iPhone Screen Means?

I just saw a Phone and dots icon on my iPhone today, which caught my attention what it actually means in the status bar. This icon looks like a phone with a few dots or a keyboard icon. It is a really rare looking icon which almost all my friends have no idea what it really means.

To answer your question, this phone and keyboard or dots looking icon actually is a feature called TTY (teletypewriter) or sometimes also called RTT (real-time text). TTY feature is a feature especially for deaf persons or individuals who have difficulty in hearing. What this TTY feature does is that it acts as a protocol that transmits the text as you type and allows the recipient to read the message right away. RTT is a more high tech protocol that transmits audio as you are typing the text.

With iPhone built-in software or RTT and TTY, it requires no other add-on devices to function. You can just set up RTT and TTY as follows.

How to disable this Phone and Dots icon in my iPhone’s status bar?

To turn off or disable this TTY feature, you just need to go to iPhone Settings > Accessibility > RTT/TTY or TTY > toggle left to disable.

To enable this TTY feature, you just need to go to iPhone Settings  > Accessibility > RTT/TTY or TTY > toggle right to enable TTY function.