Access Dots - Android 12/iOS 1

IJP

Contains adsIn-app purchases

About this app

Did you know that once you grant access to your phone's camera/microphone/GPS location to any third-party App, they can use it silently in the background?

And do you feel envious about the new iOS 14's privacy feature - shows an indicator whenever camera or microphone is accessed? Or you can't wait for Android 12's implementation of the same feature?

Presenting Access Dots for Android, supporting all the way down to Android 7.0!

Access Dots, adds the same iOS 14 style indicators (few pixels light up as a dot) to the top right (default) corner of your screen whenever any third-party App uses your phone's camera/microphone/GPS location. Access Dots will be visible even on your lockscreen!

Configuring the App is as simple as enabling the Access Dots Accessibility Service (Toggle switch in the App > (More) Downloaded Services/Installed Services > Access Dots > Enable). By default the App is configured to show iOS 14 style colored access dots - green for camera access, orange for microphone access and blue for GPS location. The App itself does not request for camera or microphone access, however, to be able to monitor GPS access by any App, 'Access Dots' require GPS location permission.

Access Dots is in early BETA, under development, so far it has the following features:

● Display Access Dots whenever phone's camera/microphone/GPS location is engaged by a third-party App.
● Maintain an Access Log, which can be accessed from the App's main settings screen. The Access Log shows when the camera/microphone/GPS location was accessed, which App was in foreground at the time of access initiation and how long did the access last.
● Assign any color to either of the Access Dots.
● On Android 10+, Access Dots by default sticks beside your camera cutout (if your device has.) You can configure the location of Access Dots to the point of specifying X/Y coordinates.
● If your device supports 'Energy Ring - Universal Edition!' App, then you can wrap Access Dots around the punch hole camera as well.
● The size of Access Dots can be adjusted.

While it's free to change the Access Dots' color to whatever you want, consider making a donation to support the development and have access to few extra configurations like changing the 'size' of the dot or its location on the screen. :)

Note: Please make sure the App is whitelisted under any kind of optimization setting your device has, if the App is killed from background by the System, you may have to restart phone to get the Access Dots active again.

Ratings and reviews

This is really useful to see if apps are using your camera or microphone, but if it is using both you can't tell because the dots stack. That would be a good fix if you could make them side by side. Thanks! Update: update fixed my previous complaint but now the ads have sounds which are really annoying especially when I don't want to disturb everyone unexpectedly.

Hello, I really enjoy using this app however I notice that the dots stop appearing after a day and a half. Whenever this happens, in order to get them to work again I need to turn off and back on again or restart the phone. This happens every day and a half about. It's really annoying since my phone tends to also slow down when this happens. Maybe this has something to do with the app's accessibility service? Anyways, if it helps I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S10e running Android 11 with Lawnchair2

Seems to work mostly as described, so far, with it being tested using the native camera app. I did not have a chance to try the version with separate Dots, (this one has combined Dots) but I think I would prefer them separate or at least the ability to toggle between the two options. Issues found are: The slider bar to adjust the size of the Dot(s) is not working. It is stuck about a 1/3 of the way. The Dot is partially off-screen when located on either side at the bottom. Samsung Galaxy S20 5G.

What's new

500,000+ downloads, thanks for the support, everyone!

* Bug fixes. Attempt to improve monitoring accuracy.

#1 Added 'Access Dot' for GPS access. Manually grant the one-time permission within the Settings of the App.
#2 Multiple Access Dots (Camera/Mic/GPS) now merge into a gradient whenever simultaneously accessed.
#3 Access Dots can now display as 'Ring' around punch hole camera if your device supports 'Energy Ring' App. Download and install the companion App.
#4 New App Icon.