How to see which app is using your microphone on a Mac
An orange dot just appeared in your menu bar and you’re not on a call. macOS tracks every app that opens the microphone. Here’s how to see which one it is, stop it, and make sure it can’t do it again.
Updated
The quick answer
When any app uses the microphone, macOS shows an orange indicator in the menu bar, next to the Control Center icon. To see which app:
- Click Control Center in the menu bar (the two-switches icon).
- At the top, macOS lists the app, for example Microphone: Zoom.
If the indicator just went away, Control Center keeps showing the app that used it recently for a short while, labeled as recent.
Stop it right now
- Quit the app it named (⌘Q, or right-click its Dock icon › Quit). Background agents often live in the menu bar; quit from their icon.
- In a browser: close the tab that’s on a call. Safari and Chrome both show a mic icon in the tab and address bar while a page is listening.
- Stubborn helper: find it in Activity Monitor by name, select it and click the ⓧ button to quit it.
Revoke access for good
Every app that can use the mic had to ask first. To see and change that list, open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone. Turn off any app you don’t want listening. It’ll have to ask again (and you can say no) next time.
To reset every app’s answer at once from Terminal:
tccutil reset Microphone
Each app will ask again the next time it wants the mic. To reset only one app, pass its bundle ID, for example tccutil reset Microphone us.zoom.xos. Find an app’s bundle ID with:
osascript -e 'id of app "zoom.us"'
Which microphone is it using?
If you have a headset, a webcam and a USB mic, the app may be on the wrong one. Check System Settings › Sound › Input for the default, and the input level meter there to confirm the mic actually hears you. Most call apps also have their own input picker, which overrides the system default for that app.
The dots, decoded
| Indicator | Means |
|---|---|
| Orange dot or mic icon | An app is using the microphone |
| Green dot | The camera is on (the mic may be too) |
| Purple dot or screen icon | Screen or system audio is being recorded or tapped |
Per-app volume apps, screen recorders and some meeting apps that share system audio show purple, not orange, because they capture output, not your voice.
When to worry
The indicator itself is trustworthy: it’s drawn by macOS (ControlCenter), not by the app. What to look for is an app you don’t recognize in the Microphone list in Privacy & Security, or the indicator coming on when nothing you know of should be listening. Quit the app, revoke its access, and if you don’t remember installing it, check where it lives:
ps -axo pid,command | grep -i <name>
codesign -dv --verbose=2 /path/to/App.app 2>&1 | grep -E "Authority|TeamIdentifier"
An app signed by a developer you know is a misconfiguration. Something unsigned in a hidden folder deserves a closer look.
Seeing it live
Stat Space’s Volume tab shows a banner such as “Mic in use by Zoom” whenever an app has the input running. It reads that from Core Audio’s per-process “running input” state, so it needs no permission and doesn’t open the mic itself. System listeners, like Siri’s wake-word detector, appear as a quiet line, since macOS shows no indicator for them. The same tab has the input device picker, input volume and mute. Its optional live input level does open the microphone, so that one asks for Microphone permission and shows the orange dot while it’s on. Free.
Questions
What’s the difference between the orange and purple dots?
Orange means an app is using the microphone. Purple means an app is recording your screen or system audio, which includes per-app volume tools built on audio taps. A green dot means the camera is on.
Why is the orange dot on when no app is open?
A background helper can hold the mic: a meeting app’s menu bar agent, a dictation tool, a browser tab that kept a call open, or a voice assistant. Open Control Center to see the app’s name.
Does “Hey Siri” show the orange dot?
No. macOS’s own always-on listener for “Hey Siri” or “Siri” runs on low-power hardware and doesn’t trigger the indicator. You can turn it off in System Settings › Siri.
Can an app use the mic without the indicator?
Not a normal app. The indicator is drawn by macOS itself whenever any process captures from an input device, and the app can’t hide it. Granting microphone access in Privacy & Security is still the real gate.
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