In the latest instance of the iOS 14 beta mode that talks about the app’s unexpected behavior, some users reported seeing the green “camera on” indicator while using Instagram when just scrolling through their feeds, without taking a photo or video.
Casually browsing Instagram when the new iOS 14 camera / microphone indicator suddenly turns on, then the control panel betrayed the app behind it. This is going to change things. # iOS14 pic.twitter.com/EnTIRsqq3R
– KevDoy (@KevDoy) July 17, 2020
An Instagram spokesperson said in an email to The edge that the behavior was an error and that it is being fixed. The App Creation Mode can be accessed from the Instagram camera, which could turn on the camera indicator, and swiping your finger towards the App Camera from Feed can also activate it.
“We only access your camera when you ask us to, for example, when you go from Feed to Camera. We found and are fixing a bug in iOS 14 Beta that mistakenly states that some people are using the camera when they are not, “the spokesperson said.” We do not access your camera in those cases, and content is not recorded. “
The behavior appears to be yet another aggressive notification from new iOS 14 users, alerting users to app behaviors like copying to the clipboard. Several iOS apps, including TikTok, LinkedIn, and Reddit, were found to access users’ clipboard content, as every time a third-party app accesses the clipboard of an iOS 14 device, a notification appears.
TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, had said earlier this year that it planned to stop accessing the device’s clipboards. The company said The edge last month he had sent an update to the App Store to remove the feature, which he described as an “anti-spam” measure. The company said the feature was never introduced on Android devices. LinkedIn said it was stopping the practice of copying the clipboard, and Reddit said it was fixing code that caused the behavior in its application.
The parent company of Instagram, Facebook, corrected a bug in its iOS app last year that seemed to be activating the cameras of the devices in the background without the knowledge of users.