Hey all, probably better places to ask this but you all know everything. I got a oneplus 10 pro, and it has a very faint microphone icon in the top right. It’s not there all the time, but I’ve noticed it with firefox, and a few other apps.

I messed around with the mic permissions but nothing seemed to get rid of it.

What is it, and how do I make it not there?

  • [email protected]
    27•1 day ago

    I think it’s meant to tell you the app has access to your microphone, which could be useful to know from a privacy perspective.
    If it’s anywhere, it might be in privacy related settings.

    • @[email protected]
      10•1 day ago

      This right here, OP. On my phone it’s

      Settings -> Security & privacy -> Privacy Controls -> Permission manager

      I bet if you remove FF’s mic permission and then open it you won’t see the icon anymore. My phone will put a little green dot in the upper right for an app that has permission to access location.

      • @mortalicOP
        4•1 day ago

        That’s kind of what I figured. Though Firefox shows as microphone is not allowed. But it def shows the icon.

        • Daemon Silverstein
          7•1 day ago

          There are two kinds of permissions at play: the Android’s microphone permission for Firefox, and Firefox’s microphone permission for sites.

          Firefox needs permission from Android in order to access the microphone. Then, sites need permission from Firefox to access the microphone. You can set Firefox to block access, allow access or ask for access. The latter is the default option, so every time a site tries to access navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia() or navigator.getUserMedia(), Firefox will show a popup asking whether to allow or block such access.

          • @mortalicOP
            2•1 day ago

            Hmmm, no pop up, but I hear what you’re saying… What should i do?

            • Daemon Silverstein
              5•1 day ago
              1. Open Firefox app
              2. Open the 3-dot menu (⋮) and choose Settings.
              3. Scroll and find and choose “Site settings”
              4. Choose “Microphone”.

              If you see the following screen, then Android is blocking Firefox access to microphone.

              However, if you see only the two options “Ask to allow” and “Block”, without any following complain from Firefox regarding Android, then Firefox already has microphone access from Android, and it’s (Firefox) ready to ask or block whenever a site tries to access microphone.

        • @[email protected]
          2•1 day ago

          Well… hm. Now I can’t manage to make my FF show the Mic privacy icon no matter how I set the permissions.

          Mine are always shown inside the green background before it fades to the little dot though, if yours does that stock behavior with the permission icons and this is a different icon then I really don’t know.

    • LostXOR
      9•1 day ago

      Not everyone has the money for an iPhone, or is willing to deal with the walled garden that Apple products are. “Buy a new phone” is also just a really terrible response to someone asking for help.

        • LostXOR
          5•1 day ago

          Meh, it’s just a fact that some people have better things to spend their money on. And Android phones work well for many users. The user experience is less streamlined, but they have a lot more to offer in terms of control and customization (custom ROMs, launchers, sideloading, rooting, etc). I say this as someone who has extensively used both.