Android 12 is gearing up to add new toggles to ensure that a smartphone’s camera and mic access is kept private. That’s based on recent reports detailing the new switches, found in the first Android 12 developer preview’s quick tile settings. For clarity, those are the settings that appear when the notification shade is swiped down.
Mute the mic and stop camera access at the tap of an Android 12 toggle
As might be implied here, the new toggles work and look similar to those that already exist. For instance, an Android smartphone’s Bluetooth can be turned on or off simply by pulling down the notifications and tapping the appropriate icon. But these toggleable icons are for the smartphone’s camera and mic, intended to keep those aspects of the device private. And that’s exactly what they should do, once finalized.
The new toggles are specifically marked “Block Camera” and “Mute Microphone.” Once activated, those components are effectively blocked for all apps. When apps request access to the camera or microphone, users are presented with a system notification, indicating the intent. And users can either choose to turn on access again or cancel access.
The new features build on permissions adjustments made in Android 11.
Android 12 will land later this year
Now, for the time being, neither toggle appears to work exactly as intended. At least not for every user, reports indicate. Some system-level apps and even third-party apps can still gain access after toggling the settings. For Android system-level apps, such as the built-in camera application, privileges simply appear to be retained. For the latter app type, the apps themselves are showing as not having access but the camera was running in the background.
Of course, Google won’t be finished finalizing Android 12 for several months still. The most likely launch timeframe appears to be sometime in September. So there’s still plenty of time for Google to fix the above-mentioned issues prior to rollout.