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

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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?

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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.

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