What Does The Green Dot That Sometimes Appears At The Top Of Your IPhone Mean?

You’ve probably already seen a green dot at the top right of your iPhone screen, near the notch or in the Dynamic Island. Unsurprisingly, this green indicator has a very specific meaning. We explain to you what it is and why Apple wanted to add it to iOS.

In 2020, Apple launched a series ofprivacy indicators with iOS 14. The Cupertino company especially took advantage of this major update to strengthen the transparency of applications in terms of respect for private life. The new version of iOS requires applications to clearly indicate when a sensitive iPhone function is used. When a key function is used by the application, an indicator will appear on the screen.

Also read: A blue dot appears on Android? Here’s what it really means

A green dot to keep an eye out for

Among the indicators added to iOS are the famous green pastille which appears periodically in the right part of the screen. This simply indicates that an application is using your iPhone’s camera. The green dot also appears when you make a call with FaceTime. Clearly, the green dot shows that an application can see you, and it’s obviously better to know that. As you will have understood, the green dot in iOS has the same meaning as its Android counterpart.

To find out which app is using the camera, simply swipe from the top right corner of the screen to open the Control center of iOS. The name of the application then appears at the top, just below the indicator, in a large green banner. In the example below, we opened the camera through Instagram. Note that the green dot will remain displayed as long as the camera remains active. If you lock iPhone, the indicator disappears.

What apps have access to the iPhone camera?

This feature is particularly relevant when the green dot appears unexpectedly, without any application explicitly using the camera. If this green dot lights up when you are clearly not using the camera, it is possible thatan application uses it in the background. In some cases, a malicious application may be causing this suspicious behavior.

If this green dot lights up for no reason, Apple recommends checking the permissions granted to the applications, by going to the Settings then in the section Privacy and security and finally in the part Camera. There you can find the complete list of apps that have requested access to the camera. You can then review all the apps and choose the ones that really need access to your camera.

Note that the camera access permission appears when opening the app. The app will display a pop-up window explicitly asking you to provide access. In theory, you should therefore not be surprised by the applications listed. However, sometimes access is authorized in a hurry. This is why it is important to block certain apps through the settings. Note that it is impossible for the user to disable this flag. It is aboutsystem protection imposed by Applewhich the applications themselves and users cannot control.

Other colored dots that appear on your iPhone

The green dot isn’t the only privacy indicator to keep an eye on on your iPhone. Since iOS 14, we also find an orange dotwhich indicates that the microphone is used by an app, and a blue dotwhich shows that your location is being monitored. Here again, these indicators are valuable to allow you to keep your smartphone and its most sensitive functions under control.