When my phone is unlocked and the camera is active, the green dot lights up right next to the front-facing camera in the Dynamic Island. When my phone is locked and the camera is active, the green dot is in the top right corner of the screen instead. Anyone know why or have any guesses?
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Anyone notice the green dot for active camera moves to the corner of screen if phone is locked?
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My guess is that the Dynamic Island can only show one thing/app/widget at a time. When the phone is locked, it shows the lock icon/Face ID, which probably has top priority for the Dynamic Island.
The same behavior can be seen with other apps while the phone is unlocked. For example, when I have Snapchat open, the green dot is in the Dynamic Island; but if I also have a timer going, then the timer is in the Dynamic Island and the green dot is in the top-right corner.
The same behavior can be seen with other apps while the phone is unlocked. For example, when I have Snapchat open, the green dot is in the Dynamic Island; but if I also have a timer going, then the timer is in the Dynamic Island and the green dot is in the top-right corner.
Hmm it sounds plausible that the DI doesn’t show the green light if the DI is being used for something else, albeit that seems like more of a UI design choice than having a technical reason. I still don’t totally understand the choice though, it seems unnecessary to move the dot. Also when I set a timer and open the camera app (phone unlocked), the timer disappears from the DI and the green light turns on, so it appears it works differently than when using Snapchat. All I can think of why it would behave differently is that Snapchat is a third party app, but still the inconsistency is strange.
But what really surprises me is that I thought the green light is hardwired to the camera so that the light has to be on if the camera is active. I guess this is not the case.
It’s like that for MacBooks, and the new iPhone 16 (A18) and iPad Pro M4 have something similar in effect with the Secure Exclave. But older iOS devices just use software to control it.
Thanks for the info. What do you mean by something similar? I have an iPhone 16 Pro.
It’s not direct in hardware but the indicator lights run through the “Secure Exclave”. There’s not much info available but it runs below/separate from even iOS so it’s a lot harder for malware to disable the indicator light even if your phone gets compromised.
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Good info thanksIt’s not direct in hardware but the indicator lights run through the “Secure Exclave”. There’s not much info available but it runs below/separate from even iOS so it’s a lot harder for malware to disable the indicator light even if your phone gets compromised.
iPhone 16 has the same new privacy feature as the M4 iPad Pro
When Apple introduced the M4 iPad Pro earlier this year, the company quietly added a new privacy feature to it,...