Google is now working on offering a new notification dot in Android 16 QPR3, which will be convenient to tell you when an app is accessing your location.
In case you missed it, back in 2021, Google introduced a new green dot to prominently notify the user that an app was using the camera or microphone on Android smartphones with Android 12.
Now, a new report from a reliable blog, 9to5Google, revealed that Google is now working on a new location tracking feature, i.e., a new blue dot, which will reveal when apps are using your location.
According to the report, Google’s latest Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1 suggests that, in addition to your device’s microphone and/or camera, the status bar alert will also expand to apps accessing your location.
Notably, the indicator functions the same way as the existing ones; however, there’s a clear change, as the dot will be blue instead of green when appearing all by itself. You will appear this dot only when an app is using your device’s location and not its camera or mic.
In case the dot appears alongside the mic or camera indicator, it will merge into the green capsule-like chip. This new functionality is seamlessly working on the latest Android 16 QPR3 beta and should make its way to users in a stable release around March 2026.
It remains to be seen whether Samsung will adopt this functionality with its upcoming software update, maybe One UI beta 9, for its Galaxy devices.
