Have you ever had the feeling of being spied on? Something like a little itch on the back of the neck, almost a chill? That your mobile apps have access to the device’s microphone is always disturbing, especially since there is no way to know when an app is using the microphone and when it is not.
When you install an app, you often give permission to everything that it asks of you, and you trust that it will give good use to all those accesses you grant it. What happens next is between you and the personal conscience of the app developers.
How to know if an app is secretly using the microphone or the camera of your phone
Although Android does not have any native function that warns you when an app is using the microphone, the truth is that there are alternatives that can help you know this information. We are talking about the Access Dots app, a very easy-to-use tool that alerts you on the screen using a dot or orange LED when an app is using the microphone in the background.
In addition to using the microphone, Access Dots also informs when an app activates the camera (green light) or the mobile’s GPS (blue light). This tool does not require access to the camera or microphone to work, and it is always active, even when the screen is locked.
Once the application is installed, the first time you open it, you will have to activate the tab that you will see on the screen.
This will take you to the Android accessibility menu, where you have to activate the tab corresponding to the Access Dots services.
- Go to “Accessibility -> Installed Services -> Access Dots.”
- Enable the “Enabled” tab.
Next, if you click on the gear icon in the lower area of ​​the screen, you will enter the options menu. From here, you can select the color of the notices, their size, and their location.
My Example
In my case, I have placed the warning LED in the upper left margin of the screen. Be careful, you will only see the warning when an app is using the microphone, the camera, or the GPS in the background, but the rest of the time, you will not see anything on the screen.
In the example in the screenshot below, we have recorded an audio note in Telegram, and as you can see, Access Dots has launched the corresponding orange notice.
If you return to the Access Dots app and enter the logs section, you will be able to see a record with the name of the app, the time, the type of access it has made (camera, micro, or GPS), and for how long it has used said access.
This application does not consider applications such as Google Assistant, which always listens to the “ok Google” activation command.
Access Dots is an application that is still in beta, although from what we can verify, it works quite well. A highly recommended tool to keep the privacy of your device at bay at the cost of some other unpleasant surprise.
