Moof!

The Release Candidate (RC) of iOS 17.4 is expected to drop any day now. It includes features such as App Store changes in the EU, podcast transcripts, new emoji, a new ‘post-quantum cryptographic protocol’ for iMessage, and more. It also brings developers 23 new SF Symbols as part of SF Symbols 5.3 – let’s go into detail around what has been added.

New symbols:
apple.meditate
apple.meditate.square.stack
apple.meditate.square.stack.fill
apple.terminal.circle
apple.terminal.circle.fill
arrow.down.app.dashed
arrow.down.app.dashed.trianglebadge.exclamationmark
audio.jack.mono
audio.jack.stereo
ipad.badge.exclamationmark
ipad.landscape.badge.exclamationmark
ipad.gen1.badge.exclamationmark
ipad.gen1.landscape.badge.exclamationmark
ipad.gen2.badge.exclamationmark
ipad.gen3.landscape.badge.exclamationmark
iphone.badge.exclamationmark
iphone.gen1.badge.exclamationmark
iphone.gen2.badge.exclamationmark
iphone.gen3.badge.exclamationmark
medal.star
medal.star.fill
plus.circle.dashed
translate

Meditation

These symbols are all related to Apple’s Meditation features in Fitness+, and are restricted to this use. The ‘.stack’ versions likely are for use when creating Stacks in the Fitness app.

Terminal

These symbols are circle variants of the existing ‘apple.terminal’ symbol introduced as part of SF Symbols 5.0 in 2023. Interestingly, although these are called the ‘Apple’ terminal, their usage is not restricted.

Dashed Variants

Three new dashed variants of symbols have been added relating to downloading apps and the plus icon.

Audio Jacks

Two new symbols have been added to refer to audio jacks (remember those?). There are mono and stereo versions, which is nice attention to detail!

Exclamation Mark iPhone & iPad

Almost half the new symbols (10/23) are for an exclamation-badged version of iPhone and iPad devices. These cover all generations of iPhone and iPad. Apple categorise iPad devices into two generations: Gen 1 (home button), and Gen 2 (Face ID). They categorise iPhone devices into three generations: Gen 1 (home button), Gen 2 (notch Face ID), and Gen 3 (Dynamic Island).

Medals

Two new medal symbols have been added – these are in addition to the existing ‘medal’ and ‘medal.fill’ symbols (which, confusingly, also feature a star symbol on them – I can see these getting redesigned at some point).

Translate

Finally, a restricted symbol has been added to refer to Apple’s translation features. Is this a pre-emptive move as we start to see more AI-based translation features in iOS 18? Probably not, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see this symbol used more in the future as Apple push further into integrating AI features in their operating systems.

As well as occasionally writing at Moof!, I also publish an SF Symbol viewer for macOS, iOS and watchOS, which the screenshots in the article were derived from. You can download it here: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/san-fransymbols/id1504761986