An arrow pointing into a folder, similar to this. Sidesteps the tech issue altogether.

I reject the question. That's not a picture of a floppy disc, that is the glyph that means save

You literally called it the save symbol. And that's what it is...100 years from now, if we're still around and still have computers, the save icon will still be some stylized glyph based on the floppy disc

The existence of the floppy disc is already just a bit of trivia about the save icon

It's like asking what we should change the Bluetooth symbol to? Why do you yearn for the world to burn?

An icon can be any random glyph, but it has to stay recognizable and consistent in meaning, that's the entire concept here

You can't just jump to the future, so use this one for the next decade:

SD card. Half us old timers won’t even realize it’s not a floppy disk.

every letter in the alphabet started as a symbol of something 2500-6000 years ago, "A" for instance is an upside-down Ox head. people in future generations will continue using the floppy symbol, cuz they learned that means saving, despite floppies not being relevant to their lives

A crucifix...

...because Jesus saves.

I think we should just keep the floppy disk symbol at this point, because it doesn't matter what it was originally based on or whether that exists any more--everyone knows what that symbol means, and it can't really be confused with anything else.

There's no point making an icon that looks like any other particular kind of storage device since those are changing all the time. So we either have to pick some real world thing like a safe or warehouse or grain silo or whatever. or invent some completely new symbol that's not related to anything and then everyone would have to learn it. Which takes us back to just keeping the floppy disk symbol.

Nobody else immediately thought of this?

Something completely abstract, like this

A squirrel, as in to squirrel it away

A CD image. Got to move with the times.

Let's be real, when some shitty company (MS) gets around to it, it will be: ☁️⬆️

A cassette tape.

A safe or vault symbol as an indicator for safe keeping

I've already seen it replaced in some applications. Don't like that.

I know it's "if you have to", but if I have any choice at all, the floppy icon stays.

A quill

If the floppy disk was no longer the save symbol for software, and I had to chose one, I'd chose the floppy disk symbol.

But you worded your question wisely to avoid that loophole, so I'm not sure what to use instead for an otherwise unique and ubiquitous symbol, already known as "the save file icon" for two generations that have not seen it.

While we're at it, let's also replace the phone icons with a rectangle, as to not confuse anyone.

Han solo frozen in carbonite

Ouuh this is a fun one. I find that floppy disks look somewhat similar to SD-cards. Do you think the majority of kids (18 and younger) would recognize SD cards?

Down arrow pointing to a line, box, folder, or similar. Icons like that are what I've seen most commonly in software that has an icon for saving over the last few years.

the final fantasy 7 save crystal. because just look at it. LOOK AT IT!

Probably an arrow pointing to a hard drive.

A Jesus icon.

Jesus saves.

I choose a labeled, icon-free button that says save

🗄 or 🗃 come to mind.

I've seen HDD icons as a replacement for the floppy.

Given the impermanence of any storage medium today, I'm thinking a puff of smoke would convey the sentiment with the right level of user expectation.

💨

A dark souls campfire/site of grace

I think the download icons will become synonymous with saving. It's functionally the same, move thingy to a location on your computer.

But I like the floppy disk save symbol

Gotta go with an even older symbol, the ring buoy.

A rotary pay phone powered by a steam engine.

probably a safe.

Ice cube, because you're freezing it in whatever working state you're in.

Go older: a punch card being inserted into a tray

Core memory. It's non-volatile.

5.25"floppy disk

Bill Gates eventual tombstone.

Floppy disk save symbol

You mean the vending machine?

Bonfire from Dark Souls, because you don't want to lose your soul by failing to save progress.

A PSX Memory Card, because that would be awesome.

Something like this ?

I wonder if we would would really "expect" a new safe icon. Most modern software has auto-saving. Games for example often just use a spinning circle to indicate it's saving. Word and google docs just say "don't worry, we're continuously saving your work" when you hit Ctrl + S.

I imagine if you want to save something locally you have the downward arrow for downloading, or some other icon for moving and copying files.

A cloud. Just to let them know they don’t own anything anymore.

A tombstone.

Because you think that you have it fixed now to a certain place.

And you think it has got a name plate in front of it.

But you don't want to think about all the dark details of what's really happening down below!

Idk, I guess SSDs/flash media is pretty prevalent nowadays, especially in gaming context. That said, it doesn't leave much in the way of a universally identifiable icon, or animation. So maybe an exposed hard disk, with the disk spinning and the arm moving, if you can picture what I'm describing.

I'd like to think it won't even be necessary with a save icon as autosave becomes more prevalent. If I'm wrong, one option the icon could be is something like a "snapshot"

5.25 inch floppy as homage to my childhood. Or maybe 8 inch - but while I lusted after that much space I never used one.

Symbol of "the cross" with hover-over text in which Microsoft writes "pray I don't amend it further."

For that future timeline when the meaning of Save becomes "stop working, let Copilot perfect it, and close"

In Canada, a goalie's hockey stick.

A circle with a check/tick in it

Reel to reel tape? Ahahaha

Probably an arrow pointing down inside of a circle, like the download icon. Most of the software I use just has text saying "Save file" and no icon, and I usually press control + S anyways so I don't have much of an opinion regarding this

Animated Save Album from Mario and Luigi Partners in Time:

I cant find a gif of this, but the rainbow section is supposed to be animated, and the book opens when you hit (click) it.

The three disks thing that symbolizes database, with a down arrow on top.

Or if we’re really going for the abstract, a knight in armor fighting a dragon with a lady behind him.

Pirate flag or dollar sign, depending on how the file is obtained.

A box that's closing? as in something being packaged?

A hand placing a book on a shelf

Or placing something more modern on a shelf

I'd finish my idea but I'd have to charge you 50 million dollars for it so yea...

Okay so hear me out.

The only solution here is Peter

Need to head out ? Oh ok lemme peter this document real quick.

Arrow to disk.

My company designer erroneously uses a cloud icon.

An SSD or HDD disk lol.

Something like the symbol Mac uses/used for external storage

C90 cassette.

Maybe like a stop sign. That would signify that you’re purposely stopping to save.

Nothing. Why do I need to manage storage myself? Everything i do should just be automatically saved. Each doc should essentially be version control so you can intelligently step back and fork if you need to.

I like: Cylinder, Snowflake, Vault, or Piggy bank

An arrow pointing up at a line. Preferably with each being a different colour.

The arrow indicates movement. The line is abstract. But with the colour coding it carries the idea of 'putting the thing into the other thing'.

The rest is learned pattern recognition. A download is a down arrow in a circle because you are taking the thing from the other thing. So saving is an arrow to a line because you are putting the thing in the other thing.

AM.

The record symbol from every phone camera

Just remove it all together and use only keyboard shortcuts

( ) )======D~~~

Text that says "Saving..."

Goatse

There should be no save button. All software should auto-save continuously while you work. There should be a "duplicate"-type menu item or button that allow you to make a copy of the document into a new file.

Almost all cloud software already works like this.

The concept of saving is itself antiquated. Your data should always be saved.

The word 'save.' Never understood why software moved on from words.

"Saving" a file should already be obsolete.
Filesystems should automatically retain history, so whenever you edit something it's already saved, with the ability to go back to any previous state.