An iPhone enthusiast found themselves puzzled after noticing a peculiar blue icon at the top of their screen. This symbol, situated beside the clock in the top-left corner of the status bar, prompted them to seek answers in a Reddit thread: “What is this blue icon?”
Sharing a photo of the discovery, they explained: “Came up on my dad’s phone and I have no idea what it is. He has a tendency to just randomly download a ton of apps and never use them, so no idea what it could be from. Any help is appreciated, thanks.”
One user jokingly replied, “aliens are listening,” but the truth is much simpler (and less exotic). It’s actually the icon indicating that a built-in iOS feature called Voice Control is active.
Voice Control is an Accessibility feature designed to facilitate total voice control of your iPhone. Apple explains in an official memo: “You can control iPhone with just your voice. Speak commands to perform gestures, interact with screen elements, dictate and edit text, and more.”
To access this feature, navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control. You can set up quick access for turning the feature on or off in three ways: adding it to the Control Center and tapping the icon, setting it to the Accessibility Shortcut (activated with a triple-click of the Side button), or asking Siri to switch it on or off with a voice command.
So, if you’ve accidentally turned it on, any of these methods will allow you to switch it off. However, if you don’t need it, it’s advisable to turn it off to prevent unintended actions being performed on your iPhone via voice commands.
If you’re still confused about the symbol, even after using Voice Control, you’re not alone. Apple recently changed the symbol from a blue microphone icon to a blue circle with two white arrows on the left and right side, and three vertical white lines in the middle.
