WhatsApp Bug Causes Microphone to Activate Unexpectedly on Android Devices
According to a Twitter engineer, WhatsApp was using his phone’s microphone even while he was sleeping. However, it seems that this is not entirely true.
Recently, WhatsApp users may have noticed a strange phenomenon. The app showed several users that it was accessing their device’s microphone on their Android device even when it had no reason to. However, it turns out that a software bug is causing the confusion.
The problem first surfaced a month ago but gained more attention only after a Twitter software engineer wrote about it. The image shared by Foad Dabiri shows that the microphone was working in the background several times while he was not using the app.
Elon Musk also shared the post, stating that WhatsApp cannot be trusted. By the way, Musk is a big fan of Signal, an app that enables encrypted messaging. In the next month, Twitter will reportedly also receive such a function, although the company has not confirmed this yet.
WhatsApp stated that it has investigated the incident, and it appears that the problem is not directly with the app but with Google’s Android device, which incorrectly indicates what peripheral device a particular app was using. They are already working on fixing the bug, so hopefully, it is just that, and not the fact that WhatsApp’s microphone is still on from time to time.
