In this quick guide, we’ll go over what you should do if you see that Accessibility features are using your iPhone or iPad’s microphone.
When an app or service uses your iPhone or iPad mic, a small orange dot appears at the top of the screen. Similarly, when the camera is used, a green dot shows up.
Now, when you don’t want an iOS app to use your iPhone or iPad’s microphone, just go to that app’s settings and turn off the Microphone switch. This will prevent all microphone features of that app from working, but other features will continue to function.
For instance, if you block WhatsApp from accessing iPhone’s microphone, you won’t be able to send voice notes and make calls, but you can still send texts, photos, share location, and do everything else.
However, when it comes to accessibility settings, there isn’t a single toggle to prevent it from accessing the mic. You’ll instead have to turn off the individual accessibility features that use the microphone.
For example, the Name Recognition feature continuously uses your iPhone’s mic to detect when your name is called. Since you don’t want it to access the microphone, you’ll have to turn off this feature entirely. There is no middle ground.
Now, iOS Accessibility is a wide term with over 40 features. So, when you see ‘Accessibility’ at the top of your iPhone or iPad Control Center, you may not always know which one to turn off. So we’ll help you with that.
Stop Accessibility from accessing your iPhone or iPad microphone
These are the iOS accessibility features that require your device’s microphone to function. Turn them off if you or someone with access to your device accidentally turned them on and you have no use for those features.
- Sound and Name Recognition
- Live Captions (when audio source is set to microphone)
- Vocal Shortcuts
- Voice Control (though it does not say ‘Accessibility’ in iOS Control Center; instead, it clearly says ‘Voice Control’)
You can turn off the above features by going to Settings > Accessibility.
After that, the orange button will disappear from the top of your iPhone or iPad screen.
And soon after, the ‘Accessibility’ label will also disappear from the top of Control Center.
Also, check out: How to add Wi-Fi and Bluetooth buttons to iPhone Home Screen