Google acknowledged and finally fixed the Android bug that caused WhatsApp to gain unauthorized access to a smartphone’s microphone.
If you haven’t heard of this bug before, let’s briefly summarize: In early April, some users started noticing and reporting online that the software was using their device’s microphone without their permission. This issue culminated on May 6 when Twitter engineer Foad Dabiri noticed that WhatsApp had accessed the microphone on the Pixel 7 Pro at least nine times in one morning. Every time the error occurred, he received a notification about the issue.
WhatsApp’s official Twitter account responded by claiming that the problem was caused by an Android bug that incorrectly associated information on the phone’s Privacy Dashboard, and then promptly asked Google for a fix. It took about two months for the tech giant to realize the problem, but eventually it decided to tackle it.
The official Android Developers Twitter account recently explained why this is not a common issue, stating that the bug only affects “a limited number of WhatsApp users”. Google states that all you need to do to fix the security bug and stop these notifications is to install the latest version of WhatsApp as it is recommended to do anyway.
However, still no one knows and has not explained what causes the microphone error. There are almost no technical details about the bug, as neither Google nor WhatsApp’s parent company Meta has disclosed any details. There is also no information on the subject in the Android 13 changelog on the Android Developers website.
However, we can say that no sound is recorded even when this error is active. As clarified by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp actually didn’t give anyone access to the microphone on their mobile device. It just triggered notifications, causing them to get a little out of control. This has led some to think that they are being spied on or their privacy has been violated online, but in reality no recording or listening has been made.
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