Apple has launched iOS 14, its latest iPhone operating system, and it comes with a host of much awaited updates.
It has the ability to customize your home screen with widgets and change your default browser for the first time.
A significant change related to the orange and green dots that fly slightly below the radar is that you occasionally see a bright light at the top of your screen after an update.
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They mean here …
What does the orange dot mean?
If there is an orange dot above the signal icon on the top right of your screen, it means your microphone is turned on and recording is on.
You probably see it burning when using Siri.
The alert was created for privacy reasons – so you know when it’s being recorded.
If the light is on and you’re not intentionally using your microphone, it could mean an app is recording you without your publishing permission.
You can discover this by going to your Control Center, where you can see which app is using the microphone.
You can then choose to turn off microphone access for that particular app, wiping the ore completely if you want to be extra careful.
What does the green dot mean?
The green dot is almost identical, indicating that the camera is being used.
It will illuminate for both the front and rear cameras, meaning you’ll see a green light when you’re taking a photo or video, talking on FaceTime and unlocking your phone with Face ID.
Much like the orange dot, if you don’t use your camera intentionally, if it’s illuminated, you can check which app is using it using the control center.
Fear of tickling and YouTube
People have reported orange light fires while using TickTock and YouTube, and apps are feared to be listening to them.
It’s not clear if the apps are spying for users, or if the lighting is faulty.
The orange light appeared on the beta stage of the Instagram iOS 14 launch, which was later spotted as an error.
One Twitter user wrote: “Yaal Tiktok is listening to us. This orange dot will appear in the app and disappear as soon as I leave Tiktok.”
Another said: “I just realized that I have an orange dot on the ticket even when I don’t record any video.”
People say the same thing happens when they go to YouTube – although not in every case, on both apps.
i Contact Tiktok and YouTube to comment.
