Warning signal often ignored: What the green dot on your smartphone means

At the top of your Android phone is the status bar with familiar symbols like battery, WiFi and network. Occasionally, another symbol appears in the form of a small green dot. Many people just swipe on without giving it a second thought, but the dot is closely linked to your privacy.

You might first notice it when you open the camera or make a video in an app like Instagram. The dot comes on while you’re filming or talking and disappears again when you close the feature.

Later, it may reappear even if you haven’t pressed anything yourself. This leaves you with the question many users have asked themselves. Who is listening or watching right now?

The green dot indicates that the camera or microphone is active. This applies both when you have opened an app that uses them and when an app is doing it in the background.

The possibility of hidden access is precisely why the symbol was introduced. The green dot came with Android 12 and is intended to clearly mark hidden access attempts, Utopia.de writes.

Samsung describes the feature as an integral part of Android’s security layer. On iPhones, there are similar indicators with orange and green dots when the camera and microphone are active.

How to find the app behind the dot

If the green dot is lit for no obvious reason, the next step is to find the app using the camera or microphone.

Swipe down the status bar and tap on the dot itself. This will show you which app currently has access. On some Pixel and Motorola models, you can also see if the app is also using your location.

If it turns out that you just had an app open in the background, you can often just close it. In many cases, the dot will turn off soon after.

If it stays on even though you close the app, it may indicate more aggressive access to your phone’s features in the form of spyware or very intrusive advertising or tracking solutions, in which case it’s a good idea to act immediately.

Limit access, but you can’t turn off the tingle

You can’t permanently remove the indicator itself. It’s part of Android security and is meant to be hard to get rid of. Instead, you can remove the reason why it’s lit. You can do this by changing the apps’ permissions.

One way is through the apps menu. Open settings, select “Apps” and then “All apps”. Select the app you want to restrict and go into “Permissions”. Here you can remove access to camera, microphone and optionally location.

Another way is through the privacy menu. Open “Settings”, select “Privacy” and then “App permissions”. Select camera or microphone and find the app you want to change. Tap on the app and turn off the access.

When you do this, the app can no longer use the selected features. This may mean that parts of the app will not work. Video calls in messaging apps, social media stories or quick camera functions may disappear until you grant access again.

As a practical solution, you can lock the camera and microphone for apps you rarely use and only open access when you need the feature.