What Are Those Orange and Green Dots in Your iPhone’s Status Bar?

Video camera with an external microphone, representing iPhone camera and microphone access

In iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, Apple added two new status indicators to the right side of the status bar at the top of the screen. They’re designed to give you feedback about what an app is doing. An orange dot indicates that an app is using the microphone, and a green dot means that an app is using the camera (and possibly the microphone as well). They’re subtle and shouldn’t be distracting, but it's not immediately obvious what those dots refer to.

Two iPhone status bars with the orange microphone and green camera indicators circled

(Featured image by Bruno Massao from Pexels)

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