Shocked iPhone owners baffled by mystery scissors icon and say ‘that’s a new one’ – it has a very useful secret
BEWILDERED Apple fans have been scratching their heads over a mysterious “scissor” icon appearing on an iPhone.
A user on Reddit shared a screenshot of the strange symbol, asking for help.
The post, which has received hundreds of upvotes, asks: “Does anybody know what the scissors symbol means?”
In the image, the small symbol is visible on the iPhone status bar to the left of the battery icon.
Fellow Apple fans were left confused by the screenshot, with one writing: “That’s a new one for me.”
Another said: “Never seen this before and couldn’t find anything about it.”
FOCUS!
It turns out that the scissors symbol is actually a sign that a custom Focus is active.
Apple’s Focus modes lets you temporarily modify your iPhone based on what you’re doing.
“Focus is a feature that helps you reduce distractions and set boundaries,” Apple explains.
“When you want to concentrate on a specific activity, you can customize one of the provided Focus options – for example Work, Personal, or Sleep.”
Apple continued: “You can use Focus to temporarily silence all notifications, or allow only specific notifications – ones that apply to your task, for example – and let other people and apps know you’re busy.
“Likewise, you can customize a Home Screen page that has only apps related to a Focus and make that page your Home Screen during that Focus.
“iPhone also suggests Home Screen pages with apps and widgets that are relevant to the Focus you’re setting up.”
However, it’s also possible to set up your own custom Focus mode.
For instance, you might want to create a Workout, Relaxation, or Gaming Focus.
You can assign these Focus modes to have a special emoji that represents it.
And that emoji will then appear at the top of your iPhone screen in the status bar when the Focus is active.
So you might want to use the scissors emoji for a Focus mode that you might have active during a haircut – or maybe while you’re doing some crafts.
MAKE IT HAPPEN
Creating a custom Focus is very easy.
Just go to Settings > Focus then tap on the plus symbol at the top right.
Choose Custom, type in a name, then tap on Return.
Pick a color and an icon for your Focus, then choose Next.
Finally tap Customize Focus to choose all of the rules to govern how the Focus should work.
iPhone tricks to try today
Here are some of the best...
- Typing cursor – When typing, hold down the space bar to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, letting you move around words and sentences more easily
- Close all Safari tabs – To do this in one go, simply hold the overlapped squares in the bottom right-hand corner, and press close all tabs
- Delete lots of photos quickly – Hold down on a photo and then drag your finger diagonally in Photos to select lots of images at once, then hit delete
- Convert currency quickly – Swipe down from the top of your Home screen, then tap in the bar and type a currency (like €200) and it will automatically covert to your local currency
- Check if you’re due a battery upgrade – Batteries inside smartphones degrade over time. Just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health, and check out the Maximum Capacity reading. Generally a battery is considered worn when you’re down to 80% capacity. If you’re below, you can buy a battery swap from Apple
- Move apps around faster – Hold an app until it starts wiggling, then (while still holding) tap other apps, causing them to stack so you can move them around easier