Google fixes bug that caused WhatsApp to access microphone on Android phones

“Users can now update their WhatsApp app to address this issue. We thank WhatsApp for their partnership and apologize for any confusion this bug may have caused users.” it further stated.

Twitter engineer Foad Dabiri in a tweet last month said “WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background, while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6 AM (and that’s just a part of the timeline!) What’s going on?”.

To his post, Elon Musk then replied saying that WhatsApp cannot be trusted.

At the time, WhatsApps said that it was a “bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard” rather than the app accessing the microphone even when not required.

Now that Google has fixed the bug, it is advisable for WhatsApp Android users to update their app.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp is rolling out a new security feature that will automatically silence incoming calls from unknown numbers. The platform is calling the feature as ‘Silence Unknown Callers’. Announcing the feature via a blog post, WhatsApp says that ‘Silence Unknown Callers’ is designed to give its users more privacy and control of their incoming calls. The new feature will automatically screen out spam, scams, and calls from unknown people for increased protection.

Once a user enables Silence Unknown Callers feature on WhatsApp, incoming calls from unknown numbers will not ring on your phone. Instead, they will appear in the user call list, in case it turns out to be someone important. The feature is being rolled out globally and is also available for WhatsApp users in India. It is available on both Android and iOS phones.

Updated: 21 Jun 2023, 10:51 AM IST