WhatsApp using phone’s microphone during odd hours? Here’s what you need to know

Elon Musk recently questioned the unnecessary usage of the microphone by WhatsApp at odd times. Twitter engineer Foad Dabiri recently shared an image that raised concerns about the app's privacy practices. The image appeared to show that the app's microphone was continuously running in the background, even when not in use.

"WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background, while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6 a.m. (and that's just a part of the timeline!) What's going on?," Dabiri tweeted with a screenshot from the Privacy Dashboard on his Android device. The dashboard reveals how frequently the app accessed his microphone and camera.

"WhatsApp cannot be trusted". Musk wrote while retweeting Dabiri's post. The issue first surfaced a month ago. 

According to a statement shared on Twitter by WhatsApp, the problem was caused by an Android-related issue rather than inappropriate microphone access by the messaging app.

"We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate," the company said. (with inputs from IANS)