On mobile you very often simply don't have the space for text.
And if you say "well just make it a scrollable area for all the options" let me tell you, many people will never realize there are any further options to be scrolled to, especially if your phone's height randomly happens to make it so that the viewport area terminates between lines rather than in the middle of a line.
And just in case you say "well then you shouldn't have that many options, simple is better", you're probably wrong. The functionality is probably there because it's necessary for certain users.
I agree it's a little annoying to have to learn what the icons mean. But they're also awfully standardized at this point. There are a couple different common versions of menu and share and link, and occasionally the context doesn't clarify among search/find/zoom or back/undo... but otherwise it's pretty good. A gear icon always means settings, a person icon always means user/account, etc.
For real -- every computing environment has common conventions you just have to learn, whether Ctrl+Z/X/C/V, or pinch-to-zoom, or what the Apple logo is for in your menu. Icons aren't particularly worse here.
On mobile you very often simply don't have the space for text.
And if you say "well just make it a scrollable area for all the options" let me tell you, many people will never realize there are any further options to be scrolled to, especially if your phone's height randomly happens to make it so that the viewport area terminates between lines rather than in the middle of a line.
And just in case you say "well then you shouldn't have that many options, simple is better", you're probably wrong. The functionality is probably there because it's necessary for certain users.
I agree it's a little annoying to have to learn what the icons mean. But they're also awfully standardized at this point. There are a couple different common versions of menu and share and link, and occasionally the context doesn't clarify among search/find/zoom or back/undo... but otherwise it's pretty good. A gear icon always means settings, a person icon always means user/account, etc.
For real -- every computing environment has common conventions you just have to learn, whether Ctrl+Z/X/C/V, or pinch-to-zoom, or what the Apple logo is for in your menu. Icons aren't particularly worse here.