Different internal operating systems on phones have their way of dealing with the tasks and notifications within the phone. The iPhone has its unique ways, but some of them can be confusing, even mildly alarming. If you are wondering, ‘What do the yellow and green dots on my iPhone mean?’ for example, worry not, there’s an easy and comprehensive explanation.
Yellow, Green, Orange Dots on iPhone
Without dragging the answer longer, let us just come outright and say they are indicators. Usually, when your phone starts an action such as recording you whether that’s video or audio, that is not done by yourself, those indicators are turned on to notify you that a recording has been started.
An orange circle or a green circle in particular means either your microphone or camera are being used. To be very specific, the orange dot or circle at the top corner of your screen denotes the microphone being used, while the green dot or circle means that the camera or the camera and the microphone are being used at the same time.
Some examples of when these indicators might come on your screen are when you are talking or requesting something from Siri (microphone being used), screen recording anything on your iPhone, or taking a call. Usually, people get worried about such indicators because they think it might hinder their privacy and affect their private data. That is not the case, however, as whatever app is using either the camera or microphone is doing so after your permission.
The colored dots are a way for the users to get notified of when that is occurring, the starting and ending times of the action.
How to Turn off the indicators for Specific Apps?
iPhone is known for its heightened security and how many options it gives its users. From guidance, all the way to taking action and restricting any apps or third-party companies from accessing your data. There are options within settings that allow you to go through the security section and remove the authority from certain apps to be able to access your phone’s camera or microphone while you are using them.
Sometimes when an app has asked for your approval on mic or camera use, that too can trigger the dots to appear. The good thing is you can find out which app is causing it from the ‘Control Centre’ in your iPhone where you can find the app name beside the icon of whatever is in use.
You can go to your ‘Settings’ and in ‘Privacy’ you will find the microphone and camera options separately. Each of these features has its list of all the apps that have access to the features and can use them to record your phone’s activity. You can find the app you want to restrict from using either microphone, camera, or both and disable them.
Figuring out ‘What do the yellow and green dots on my iPhone mean?’ is a good thing to learn regarding your digital privacy, but also make sure you are aware of the apps you are using and the features that you are interested in. Some restrictions on the apps can also restrict the features that you downloaded that app for, therefore better to figure out the use along with the disposable aspects that you would not mind restricting.
