WhatsApp shows microphone access: What’s behind it

Google and WhatsApp have one Bug confirmed in the messaging app, which is said to have been occurring for a month now. WhatsApp unnecessarily uses this on Android devices microphone – even if you don’t use the app at all.

Elon Musk shared tweet

The bug only received attention because Twitter engineer Foad Dabiri tweeted about it. He shared a picture of the Privacy Dashboards of his smartphone, which shows how often individual apps access functions such as Location, camera or microphone access. The dashboard indicated that WhatsApp used the microphone several times in the middle of the night.

Elon Musk shared Dabiri’s tweet on Tuesday with the words “WhatsApp can’t be trusted”. The billionaire has long been considered a WhatsApp critic and a fan of the WhatsApp alternative Signal.

information incorrectly assigned

WhatsApp also responded to the tweet and suspected one Android bug behind. This bug incorrectly maps information in the privacy dashboard. Google has already been asked to investigate and fix the bug.

Dabiri wasn’t the first to notice the bug. The blog already spread a month ago WABetaInfo the message that WhatsApp is being attributed access in the privacy dashboard that did not take place. There are both some Pixel– as well as Samsung-Devices affected. However, a simple restart of the phone should fix the problem.

Google itself confirmed the problem. The company said it is aware of the issue and is working closely with WhatsApp to investigate.