Ensuring you have the correct privacy settings for the apps on your phone is very important.
While there have been many internet myths about your smartphone ‘listening’ to you, the simple truth is that you have control over when an app uses your microphone and can even view when it was last accessed.
This was brought into focus earlier in the week when tech CEO Elon Musk tweeted that ‘WhatsApp cannot be trusted’ in response to a series of tweets from a Twitter employee that implied WhatsApp had accessed the microphone on his phone when he hadn’t been using it.
WhatsApp issued a clarifying statement: ‘Over the last 24 hours, we’ve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp.
‘We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their privacy dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate.’
With this in mind, how can you check your microphone settings on an Android phone?
Here is what you need to know.
How to check microphone settings for WhatsApp on Android
It’s possible to view your microphone settings in just four easy steps.
Step 1: Go to your phone’s settings, from there you’ll be able to select ‘Privacy’
Step 2: In the privacy submenu, you can select your ‘privacy dashboard’.
Note you can also remove microphone access from all apps and services using one slide button from this list.
Step 3: In your privacy dashboard, you’ll be able to see what permissions your apps have used and how many have accessed them. You can then select ‘Microphone’ from this list, which will reveal the last time WhatsApp accessed your microphone.
It’s worth noting that you can also access this list from the ‘Permission manager’ button on your settings page.
Step 4: By selecting the pink button at the bottom of this page, you can view a list of all the apps that have permission to use your microphone, including WhatsApp.
You can then select the app from the list and manage its ability to access your microphone.
What does WhatsApp use microphone for?
WhatsApp uses your phone’s microphone for several of the app’s features, including making calls and recording voice notes, or videos.
In their statement on the screenshots Mr Musk replied to, WhatsApp also stated: ‘Users have full control over their mic settings.
‘Once granted permission, WhatsApp only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video – and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot hear them.’
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