WhatsApp is being accused of activating the microphone on Android smartphones without users' permission, even when the app is not in use. The complaints began at the weekend, in posts on Twitter.

Foad Dabiri, an engineer at the social network, published an image of the timeline of microphone use on his cell phone, a Google Pixel 7 Pro. The microphone activations took place in the early hours of the morning, while he was sleeping.

WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background, while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6AM (and that's just a part of the timeline!) What's going on? pic.twitter.com/pNIfe4VlHV

- Foad Dabiri (@foaddabiri) May 6, 2023

After the post, more people reported the same problem and published images of their phones' call history. In addition to models in the Pixel range, the records were detected on Samsung Galaxy S23 and S22 Ultra models, all running the Android 13 operating system.

WhatsApp's response to the "phantom" microphone

The case gained more notoriety on Tuesday 9th, when Twitter CEO Elon Musk shared Dabiri's account. Hours later, WhatsApp spoke out. The company attributed the activation of the microphone to a flaw in the Android operating system, which would have to be resolved by Google.

According to WhatsApp, the privacy panel on Android devices misinterpreted some privacy information. In this way, it would have activated the feature. Those responsible for the app said they were in contact with the Twitter engineer who made the revelation and stated that users have total control over the use of the microphone, which is only activated during calls, message recordings and other resources where the component is needed.

Users who had the problem said they were able to fix it after restarting the phone. (West Magazine)