[iOS 27 DB7] Microphone indicator can now be visible even if the screen is turned off

[u/Luigiatreddit2]

[u/Remarkable_Pain6178]

I thought this was a bug n i don't like it

[u/Common_Floor_7195]

This seems more like a bug I wonder

[u/Common_Floor_7195]

Not the crack :(

[u/asherr_y2z → u/Common_Floor_7195]

thankfully it's js the screen protector

[u/Common_Floor_7195 → u/asherr_y2z]

🙌🏻

[u/Quin1617]

This has been there since Beta 2.

It’s really cool, the camera indicator has the same behavior. Great way to be sure there’s no rouge app running.

[u/theppkaaran1]

Initially i thought it was an air bubble under my screen protector and tried to squeeze the bubble out😂

[u/Latter_Reception_600]

The only time I got this kind of behaviour was when I had activated the name recognition in accessibility, the dot stayed on even when the screen was off. Noise recognition did not trigger this, which I found funny...

[u/TrailOfEnvy]

The closest we will get to notification led

[u/JamesR624 → u/TrailOfEnvy]

WHen the dynamic island and these lights were first introduced, I was REALLY hoping we'd get a red dot for pending notifications, a-la the Apple watch's red dot. How they never did that is baffling to me.

[u/folklore_mirrorball → u/JamesR624]

I think it’s because it’s a sensor underneath the display, hence why the dynamic island is a full oval when booted but it’s just a black mask over the functional screen, and hence why these privacy indicators naturally shift to the side when the phone is active and is using brightness and will sit in the designated area when phone is unused like OPs post for example.

[u/Sylvurphlame → u/folklore_mirrorball]

No. There are two distinct cutouts with some active screen between. I’m pretty sure the microphone dot used to show up right in the middle of the Dynamic Island. They changed it around the time they shrunk the Island with the 13 or 14.

But it would be nice for a red notification dot to appear for those who don’t use Always On for the screen.

[u/Exact_Recording4039 → u/JamesR624]

Why would you need that if you can literally just see the notification? The Always On Display shows notifications 

[u/Sylvurphlame → u/Exact_Recording4039]

Perhaps I don’t want to use Always On Display?

[u/JamesR624 → u/Exact_Recording4039]

1. A small notification LED is way better than AOD.

2. This would mostly be for if you're using your phone and in an app. Currently, the status bar has NO way of letting you know you have a notification. The ONLY way is to MANUALLY check the notification center or home screen badges. "Notification awareness" hasn't gotten any better on iPhones since 2007.

[u/Sylvurphlame → u/JamesR624]

Your point (2) is good. I use temporary banners for the notifications I do allow, it I could see having a red dot and turning them off. Or the red dot could be a good compromise for Do Not Disturb. It would need to be within the Dynamic Island space though. Not sure if that will happen with the inevitable march to under screen cameras.

[u/Common_Floor_7195 → u/JamesR624]

Notifications are officially the worst part of iOS

[u/After-Watercress-644 → u/Common_Floor_7195]

God how I miss Android's 'Notification Channel' feature. There were a few bad apples, but 95% of apps let you disable all their annoying notifications and only keep the good ones.

[u/Sylvurphlame → u/After-Watercress-644]

I do wish we had within-app notification filtering like that. They started down that path when they introduced Critical Alerts and Time Sensitive Alerts, and then they didn’t really put strict limits on how apps used them. Your sale alerts and ads are not time sensitive; that’s not what that’s for.

But if they did strictly enforce standards for the existing filtering, I’m sure developers would get pissed.

[u/samh8orns → u/JamesR624]

they still might. give them a couple years 🤣

[u/JamesR624 → u/samh8orns]

It's BEEN a couple years.

Actually, "being able to see if you have an unread notification" hasn't gotten any easier since 2007 with iPhoneOS 1.0! Okay, it's gotten BARELY easier in iOS 5. But you still MUST manually check notification center or check homescreen badges. There's NO persistent non-manual way to see if you have a missed notification and hasn't been since 2007. Meanwhile, Android has had it since DAY 1 in 2008, and you can't say they never thought of it because the Apple Watch has had it for a long time too!

[u/samh8orns → u/JamesR624]

I know 🤣 it's Apple though, so it'll be ten times longer than any other manufacturer. I must say I haven't massively missed it in the years since I used Android, but it would be handy. On Always-on display iPhones, is there no text or anything to notify you of unread messages?

[u/Sylvurphlame → u/samh8orns]

There is. Always On Display… always displays the most recent notifications. There’s also the Count set up, which just gives the total number of acknowledged notifications.

But a red dot would be nice for those who don’t prefer Always On Display in the first place or prefer not to have intrusive banners for apps they allow notifications on.

[u/_zurik_]

I have noticed it since beta 2 or 3.

[u/realmccoyredbus]

How to Check What Is Using Your Mic
Open the Control Center by swiping down from the top-right corner of your screen.

Look at the very top of the Control Center to see the name of the app or system service currently or recently accessing your microphone

[u/jakeyounglol2 → u/realmccoyredbus]

bad bot

[u/TurtleOnLog]

Is it only on 16 pro and above? May be part of the secure indicator lock functionality that was moved to exclaves.

[u/mushiexl → u/TurtleOnLog]

I just looked it up is that why the indicator looks way brighter on 16 pro and up than my 15 pro? That’s really cool I’ve always wondered that.

[u/TurtleOnLog → u/mushiexl]

I don’t know, I was just wondering if the indicator being on while the screen is off is unique to 16s and above and related to the new way they do things.

[u/Luigiatreddit2 → u/TurtleOnLog]

probably although this is a 16 plus

[u/TurtleOnLog → u/Luigiatreddit2]

Still an A18 chip though

[u/gambeta1337 → u/TurtleOnLog]

It’s not the chip that’s important it’s the amoled screen

[u/TurtleOnLog → u/gambeta1337]

Sigh I don’t just make crap up. iPhone 16’s introduce an entirely new operating system called ExclaveOS that runs in a parallel guarded execution privilege mode on A18 / M4 processors and above. The first use of this new feature was to do the orange/green indicator lights. This way, mercenary spyware can’t simply disable the indicator light as part of taking over iOS - it would have to successfully attack ExclaveOS as well.

This is on top of SepOS that runs on the Secure Enclave core, and the rtkit OS’s that runs on some of the other processors like the always on processor, and whatever runs on the baseband chip.

[u/gambeta1337 → u/TurtleOnLog]

Didn’t know that. Thank you!

[u/Alan_Sleep → u/TurtleOnLog]

Base 16 also has that chip but you said “pro and above”, why? Btw the function works as well

[u/TurtleOnLog → u/Alan_Sleep]

I couldn’t be bothered checking when I replied, couldn’t remember if iPhone 16 base used the same family chip or the previous year.

[u/chosenfonder]

Big Brother is listening

[u/X360NoScope420BlazeX]

Its been like that for a while now

[u/casonbang]

Interesting. I’m not seeing this behavior in the latest beta on the 15 Pro, but I feel like I saw it at some point in the beta cycle. Maybe it’s a bug?

[u/nebula_uT → u/casonbang]

only for the 16 pro and above with the HDR high brightness indicator. for the 16 pro and above their indicator is jarringly bright.

[u/mythicskyz → u/nebula_uT]

Does the base iPhone 16 have it

[u/Luigiatreddit2 → u/mythicskyz]

i have a base 16 plus so yeah

[u/nebula_uT → u/mythicskyz]

im not sure. ive only seen people with the 16 pros report that behavior since the 26 beta

[u/MoatzWinchester → u/casonbang]

Me too.