Headphone jack symbol
Headphones. A pair of headphones marks the socket for headphones, or shows on a phone’s screen that headphones are connected.
How to read it
Next to a socket, the headphones mark the audio output: Apple’s guide to the ports on a Mac describes the Audio-Out port for headphones, speakers and other audio devices with a 3.5 mm (1/8 inch) jack. On an iPhone’s status bar the headphones icon means the phone is paired with Bluetooth headphones that are on and in range. Windows has a Headphone icon in Microsoft’s Segoe Fluent icon set.
Also searched as: audio out.
From switchboard to headphone jack
The headphone jack goes back to the telephone switchboards of the late 1800s, which used a 6.35 mm (quarter-inch) plug, CBC News reported in 2016. The plug shrank to 3.5 mm for the transistor radios of the 1950s, and later gained stereo and a microphone ring without changing size.
Read next
- Next in Power and device symbolsPlay symbolPlay. A triangle pointing right starts playback, and more broadly means start.
- The same shape in Tire sidewall markingsSpeed rating (H in 95H)The letter at the end of a tire’s service description, such as H in 95H, is its speed rating: the speed category the tire is rated for. H is 210 km/h (130 mph).
More power and device symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with curves and waves.
Sources
- Identify the ports on your Mac, Apple Support, Audio-Out
- Learn the meaning of iPhone status icons, iPhone User Guide, Apple, Media
- Segoe Fluent Icons font, Windows apps design documentation, Microsoft Learn
- Apple be damned: the humble headphone jack has survived for more than a century, Jonathan Ore, 10 September 2016, CBC News
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
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