WhatsApp found using mic when the phone isn’t in use; company says it’s an Android bug

This issue was raised Foad Dabiri, a Twitter engineer who shared a screenshot of WhatsApp’s microphone activity on his Pixel 7 Pro. Dabiri said that WhatsApp has been using the microphone while he was asleep and when he woke up. The screenshot shows a detailed timeline of WhatsApp’s microphone activity and we can see that the mic is used in very short time intervals ranging between two minutes, four minutes, and ten minutes.  What’s clear is that the phone is idle during this time with no activity from the user’s side.

The tweet surely grabbed a lot of attention with over 66 million views with even Elon Musk replying to it saying, “That’s weird.”

In response to this issue, WhatsApp said that they’ve been in touch with the Twitter engineer for the same. It added that the bug is actually on Android’s Privacy Dashboard which is mis-attributing information. WhatsApp said that they’ve asked Google to investigate and remediate the issue. 

WhatsApp also reassured users that they have full control over their mic settings. As for when the mic used, WhatsApp said it happens only when “a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video.” Even during this time, the conversations are end-to-end encrypted.

This isn’t an isolated incident though as there have been reports of WhatsApp users on Android raising the same issue. In a report by PiunikaWeb, WhatsApp users have pointed out that the green notification dot that appears when the mic is in use blinks even when the app is not in use. Google is yet to respond to this issue and confirm whether it indeed is a bug on Android. But unauthorised usage of the phone’s mic is seriously concerning especially when it’s the most widely used messaging app.