What app is currently using my microphone?

Question

Level 1

20 points

What app is currently using my microphone?

It would really be nice if Apple provided users with identifiers in the Privacy settings to show which apps are currently taking advantage of all of the entitlements we grant apps not just Location Services.

Today I noticed a small orange dot next to the clock on MacOS. I had not noticed this dot before.

Following some web searching I believe this indicates that my microphone is being used.

So when go to Settings->Security & Privacy->Privacy tab and Select Microphone I have two apps that I have entitled to use my microphone. Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Neither of those apps are currently running on my computer but I have found the following in Activity Monitor.

When I tell activity monitor to quit the highlighted item I am asked if I really want to quit this because the process is owned by _coreaudiod. If I do try to quit it the process appears to instantly restart.

It could be that this process should have died when I quit Teams but did not. I haven't had to use the microphone with teams since Thursday so it possibly has been connected several days with out my noticing this dot which I had never known about. Of course it could have been there for months.

I'll try restarting the computer next. It seems to be the only way I can remedy most of the odd behaviors I am finding in my 16" Apple Silicon MacBook Pro these days. (running MacOS 12.5)

MacBook Pro Apple Silicon

Posted on Aug 7, 2022 3:24 PM

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Answer 1

steve626

Level 6

11,501 points

Aug 7, 2022 4:22 PM in response to AgingKeeper

I am going to guess that this is related to your use of MS-Teams or Zoom because the same thing has been noticed by Webex users. Even when we are not running Webex for an actual gathering or meeting, that dot appears, With Webex, there is a setting that one can change to get rid of it (turn it off). It is explained here:

https://help.webex.com/en-us/article/hob5ab/Turn-off-your-computer's-microphone-when-you're-not-in-a-Webex-Meeting#id_122386

I am not as familiar with Teams and Zoom (I use them much less than Webex) but I am wondering if there is a similar setting where you can keep the microphone off until you need it,

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Answer 2

AgingKeeper Author

Level 1

20 points

Aug 11, 2022 3:46 PM in response to AgingKeeper

So, I have not found any settings in Teams or Zoom that control the orange dot indicating that the microphone is being used.

Also the dot returned to my menu bar and I have only used Teams since my reboot so my bet is that this is a feature of Teams and it may simply not disconnect itself once it has been enabled.

I can say with certainty that clicking on the dot does not provide any information about which app is using the microphone for me. I am using the LG Ultra-fine display and my Mac is in clamshell mode. I attempted to create a small quicktime video showing what I see and post it here via YouTube. Never have done this before so we'll see if the video eventually appears. Like images it would have been easier to upload the short video directly. It is only 1.6MB.

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