Tech Tricks: My iPhone On iOS 14 Shows A Green Or Orange Dot In The Status Bar; What Does It Mean?

If you have updated your Apple iPhone or the Apple iPad with the latest iOS 14 or iPadOS 14, you may have noticed something new pop up on the top right of the screen from time to time. Just above where the mobile network, Wi-Fi and battery indicators are. These new things that you may occasionally see may include an orange dot or a green dot. Nothing to worry, but these dots are meant to warn you about some app behavior on your phone, known or unknown. With the new iOS 14 software update, Apple has integrated these notifications for when an app on the phone is accessing the microphone or the camera, front or back. Often, you may actually be using an app for video calls, posting a photo on social media and more, but there may be times when app may misbehave or there may be malicious apps trying to access your iPhone’s camera or microphone. This will give you an instant warning, that something is amiss.

The orange dot is an indicator that an app is using your iPhone’s microphone. These could be apps that you may be using at the time, such as WhatsApp for voice calls, Zoom for audio calls or even recording something using the Voice Memos app. These are just some examples. The green dot will appear when an app is accessing the camera on your phone. You may be making a FaceTime video call, a Zoom video meeting, trying to post something on Instagram or taking a photo. The thing is, you will not see the orange and green notification dots at the same time. If you are using your iPhone to record a video, for instance, you will just see the green notification for camera access.