I have filed bug reports on this to no avail, so I am bringing it up here hoping someone at Apple will address this. Since the first beta of 26.3, with voice control enabled there are now two icons in the menu bar (*plus an orange dot in full screen) that never go away. That orange microphone isn't serving its intended purpose to notify me that something is accessing my microphone if it is always displayed. I use voice control extensively, so it is nearly always on. In every prior version of macOS, the orange icon was not on for voice control. Even if voice control is not listening but simply enabled in system settings, the orange icon will be there. And there is no need for this icon to be on for a system service that is always listening. This orange icon in the menu bar at all times is incredibly irritating, as it takes up valuable space to the right of the notch, and causes other actual useful menu bar items to be hidden. As well, if some other application on my system were to turn on the mic and start recording me I would never know since that orange icon is always on. It also places an orange dot next to the control center icon taking up even more of the precious little menu bar real estate. Please fix this! Either exempt voice control (as Siri is always listening and it doesn't get the orange icon) or exempt all system services, or give me a way to turn this off. If you cannot tell, I find this incredibly annoying and frustrating.
Orange menu bar icon that won't go away
Thanks so much for the post.
Can you produce an image so we understand exactly what you see? You can upload the picture here.
Are you reproducing it with the simulator? Can you also produce a simple focused project that reproduces the issue?
That'll help us better understand what's going on. If you're not familiar with preparing a test project, take a look at Creating a test project.
Thanks,
Albert Pascual Worldwide Developer Relations.
My apologies for neglecting to say this is a macOS issue. On iPhoneOS the orange icon is not displayed.
Thank you for providing more information about this. The picture and a focused sample still important for developers here to reproduce the issue.
Cheers,
Albert Pascual Worldwide Developer Relations.
Sure thing. However I didn't see a link where to submit the image. I did see the test project instructions.
When you typing a new post, do you see on the editor a paper clip on the bottom right? When you tap that icon, will let you upload an image, but your focused sample project, probably more important at this time.
Hope this helps
Albert Pascual Worldwide Developer Relations.