Android 12 introduced so-called privacy indicators to Google's mobile platform. These show up in the form of little green dots in the corner of your display, indicating that an app is accessing your microphone or camera. About a year after the stable Android 12 launch, this useful indicator could come to ChromeOS next, adding the privacy feature to all of the best Chromebooks out there.
As spotted by Chrome Story, Google mentions work on the privacy indicators in a Chromium Gerrit entry. The commit reveals that Google wants to add a Chrome flag for the features, aptly named chrome://flags#enable-privacy-indicators. The description makes all but clear that the ChromeOS feature will have the same functionality as the one available on Android: “While screen sharing or camera/microphone is being accessed, show a green icon in the status area as well as add a silent notification to the tray.”
In contrast to Android, where the privacy indicators are shown in the top right corner next to the battery icon, ChromeOS will add them to the bottom right of the screen in the status area, alongside other elements like the clock, calendar, and notifications. This makes sense, as that area closely resembles that of the top of the screen on Android phones. Interestingly, ChromeOS will also receive a silent notification explaining what the indicator means, while on Android, you have to swipe down to reveal the notification shade and the quick toggles and tap the privacy indicators themselves to get an explainer.
The Chromium Gerrit mentions that the flag for the privacy indicators should be available shortly after the commit is posted, so it will likely not take too long for it to go stable. Google didn’t share an exact timeline, though, so if you use the stable version of ChromeOS, don’t hold your breath just yet.
Thanks: Nick