Some users of the WhatsApp application on Android recently noticed that the microphone is being used in the background without their knowledge, but the platform claims that this is Google’s problem, not theirs.

It has been reported in the last few weeks by several users that the WhatsApp Android app is enabling the microphone permission even when it is not in use. This can be seen by the “green dot” indicator that appears on the screen whenever the microphone or camera is used (p.s. the indicator requires at least Android 12). As the folks at tech site PiunikaWeb documented last week, the tip has been seen by some WhatsApp users for over a month.

The cause isn’t entirely clear, and there’s no software fix at the moment, but WhatsApp claims it’s a bug in Google’s Android operating system itself.

“WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background while I was sleeping and since I woke up at 6am (and that’s just part of the schedule!) What’s going on?” a Twitter employee said, with Elon Musk reacting: “You can’t trust WhatApp.” “It’s unbelievable how many people don’t realize that WhatsApp is owned by Meta / Facebook” added the Twitter “boss” in another tweet.

In response to the Twitter employee, WhatsApp said on Twitter that it “believes” this is an issue with the Android Privacy Dashboard, with the dashboard “misreporting” this information to WhatsApp. The company then says it asked Google to investigate the matter. WhatsApp reiterates that “users they have complete control of their microphone settings’ and that the app only uses the microphone when a user makes a call or sends a recording/video.