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A cross-platform inconsistency: the same crescent means silence on one system and a colour scheme on another.
There is no single answer, and that is the finding. Some platforms draw do-not-disturb as a crescent moon and dark mode as something else; others do the reverse. A circle crossed by a horizontal bar is more reliably do-not-disturb. A crescent in a status bar genuinely cannot be read without knowing the platform.
Several platforms draw do-not-disturb as a crescent moon, which other platforms use for dark mode — so the same glyph means silence on one system and a colour scheme on another.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Do not disturb symbol | Dark mode moon symbol |
|---|---|---|
| Enclosing border | Sits inside a border | No enclosing border |
| Struck through | Crossed by a bar or line | Not struck through |
| Symmetry | horizontal | none |
| Do not disturb symbol | Dark mode moon symbol | |
|---|---|---|
| Most reliable drawing | A circle with a horizontal bar | A crescent moon |
| What it changes | Whether notifications reach you | The colour scheme |
| Crescent used for it | On some platforms, yes | On some platforms, yes |
| Readable without knowing the platform | Usually | No |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Dark mode moon symbol — Several platforms draw do-not-disturb as a crescent moon, which other platforms use for dark mode — so the same glyph means silence on one system and a colour scheme on another. | Commonly confused with Do not disturb symbol — Several platforms use a crescent moon for do-not-disturb rather than for dark mode, so the same glyph does two jobs across systems. |
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
In astronomy the crescent stands for the Moon. In an interface it usually switches to a light-on-dark colour scheme. But not always: several platforms use the same crescent for do-not-disturb, so a crescent in a status bar cannot be read at all without knowing which system you are looking at.
Both are drawn as one continuous decorative stroke with a closed loop and a tail that crosses back over itself, which is why a description of the shape alone reaches both. The clef is far taller, spans a stave, and its spiral encircles one specific line — that encircled line is the note G, and it is the only reason the shape is drawn where it is.
The ampersand is a ligature of the Latin word et, still visible in some italic forms where the e and the t can be picked out. The Tironian et is a separate mark descending from a Roman shorthand, shaped like a small seven, and it is in daily public use in Ireland as the written form of 'agus'. A reader who knows only the ampersand takes the other for a numeral, which on a bilingual road sign produces a confidently wrong place name.
A building's assembly point is a safe place to stand once you are outside. A ship's muster station is a staffed step in a procedure: you are counted against a roll, briefed, and if necessary allocated to a survival craft, which is why it has a letter or a number and appears on your cabin door card. Both are green, both show grouped figures, and both are called an assembly point in ordinary speech — and treating a muster station as somewhere merely to wait is the misunderstanding drills exist to correct.