Mysterious ‘blue icon’ appears on iPhone screen – fans joke it’s ‘aliens listening’

AN iPhone fan was left confused when he saw a strange blue icon at the top of the screen.

The symbol appears next one to the clock in the top left corner of the status bar.

They shared a photo of the discovery via a Reddit thread to ask: “What is this blue icon?”

It continued: “Came on my dad’s phone and I have no idea what it is.

“He tends to randomly download a bunch of apps and never use them, so no idea where it could have come from. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.”

One user jokingly replied, “Aliens are listening,” but the answer is much simpler (and less exotic).

It’s actually the icon that indicates that a built-in iOS feature called Voice Control is active.

This is an accessibility feature designed to make it easier to manage your system iPhone – allowing total voice control.

In an official memo, Apple explains: “You can control iPhone using just your voice.

“Speak commands to perform gestures, interact with screen elements, dictate and edit text, and more.”

UNDER CONTROL

You can access the feature via Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control.

It is possible to set up quick access in three ways to enable or disable the feature.

First, you can add it to Control Center and tap the icon.

Second, you can set it to the Accessibility Shortcut, which means it will activate when you triple-click the side button.

And thirdly, you can ask Siri to turn it on or off with a voice command.

So if you accidentally enabled it, you can disable it using all three methods.

If you don’t need it, you definitely want to disable it.

Otherwise, you could accidentally make your iPhone do things with your voice – and possibly not realize why.

If you are also confused about the symbol even if you have used voice control, that is understandable.

That’s because Apple recently changed the symbol: it used to appear as a blue microphone icon in the corner.

But it is now a blue circle with two white arrows on the left and right sides, and three vertical white lines in the middle.