How To Get Rid Of The Arrow On Iphone? Top Answer Update

Ryan Ariano/Business Insider

If you see the arrow icon in the top-right corner of your iPhone, it means an app is using location services.

There are a few variations of the arrow icon, and different types or colors mean your location was accessed in different ways.

You can easily find out what each of these arrow icons means by visiting the Location Services page of your Settings app.

You can also hide the arrow icon or turn off location services entirely in Settings.

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Many apps on your iPhone use your location. But did you know you can tell when different apps have access to your location?

For example, if you’re using Maps or Find My iPhone or any of the other apps that use location services, you’ll see an arrow icon in the top-right corner of your screen.

What the arrow icon means on your iPhone

There are a few different variations of the arrow symbol. Sometimes it changes color or appears hollow depending on how different apps are using your location.

You should understand what the privacy concern location services arrow means in each setting, especially if you’re not sure which apps have access to your location.

Find out what the different arrow icons on the Location Services page in Settings mean.

Here’s how to access location services on your iPhone

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.

2. Scroll down and tap “Privacy”.

3. Tap on “Location Services”.

At the bottom of the page, under System Services, you can see an explanation of what each type of arrow means:

“An empty arrow indicates that an item can obtain your location under certain conditions.”

“A purple arrow indicates that an item has recently used your location.”

“A gray arrow indicates that an item has used your location in the last 24 hours.”

On the location services page, you can see how you’ve shared your location with different apps and adjust your settings. You can also tap System Services to view and adjust more location-based settings.

In System Services you can prevent the arrow icon from appearing on your screen by disabling the “Status bar icon” at the bottom of the menu.

You can also turn off location services entirely on your iPhone to ensure no apps have access to your location, although this limits most functionality in location-based apps like Maps and Weather.

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Location verification on a mobile phone happens in the background, is relatively efficient and can go unnoticed. Today’s smartphones calculate fairly accurate GPS coordinates and broadcast that location over the internet. While we travel we turn on location tracking for security reasons, but I was recently wondering if you can tell when someone is checking your cell phone location.

no Android and iPhone iOS don’t notify or alert when someone checks your location. A brief icon appears in the notification bar when GPS is used by location services. Any number of apps or system processes trigger a location check. Only your carrier can continuously track you.

Read on as we cover why your carrier is tracking you and some smartphone-specific location tracking applications.

Your mobile operator needs your location continuously

We don’t usually consider how cellular service works. We simply subscribe to a company’s plan and start using the service.

In order for your phone to ring when someone calls, texts, or when you’re connected to the internet, your device must be constantly connected to a cell tower. The phone company maintains a central log of which phones are connected to which towers. You then route your service through the tower with the best connection.

This coordination occurs once every few minutes to several hours, depending on factors such as your usage, your movement, and the geographical location of the towers. The log of tower connections is retained for varying lengths of time based on company policy.

How to tell someone to check your location

There is no direct way to see when your carrier is checking their logs. Keep walking and expect to be followed.

Hide from your mobile operator

There are a few ways to prevent your phone from updating your carrier.

First, simply turning off your mobile device is not enough to stop it from sending. You must remove the battery. However, many devices, mostly smartphones, also have a second battery. This extra battery is mainly used to keep the clock running. There is some research showing that this additional power source can be used to send transmissions to nearby receivers.

Wrapping your switched-off phone in a few layers of aluminum foil will prevent additional signal transmission or reception. This will also ensure that you are not connected to your cellular provider.

As I write this article, I wanted to test this research for myself. I went into the kitchen and grabbed the aluminum roll. I successfully called an old prepaid cell phone while it was unpacked. I then wrapped it in foil like a burrito. The second test call went to voicemail and the phone in the aluminum didn’t ring.

share location

Your phone’s location is used to help apps but can also be shared so others can track you. Google Maps location sharing and Apple’s Find My Friends (now combined with Find My iPhone to become “Find My”) are the two main ways users can share locations between trusted users.

Google Maps

Google offers temporary and continuous location sharing via its Maps service. If you have a Google account, you can share with other Google users directly in the Maps app, or via a temporary web link for users outside of the ecosystem. Google’s full support page has great instructions.

Apple Find My Friends

The People tab in Apple’s Find My app is your destination for location sharing between iPhone users. MacRumors does a great job and explains the service in this video from YouTube.

Other Location Services

There are several cross-platform location sharing alternatives: Life360 and GeoZilla are designed for family safety.

Another option to check out is Hauk on the F-Droid App Store, a free and open source software (FOSS), location-sharing app.

⚠️Warnings:

How to tell someone to check your location

For Google Maps on Android, you’ll see two brief location notifications.

GuidingTech has a good post showing how to view your Android notification logs.

With Apple Find My Friends, a blank location icon in your status bar indicates that your device has sent an update to the Find My service.

For more information on iOS location and privacy, visit Apple’s support site.

The other location-sharing services will disclose your location updates differently. Please note that the operating system should provide the best insight into when the service is checking your phone’s location.

Remote Location Services

Remote device management is another use case for location data. Google Find My Device and Apple Find My iPhone (now combined with Find My Friends to “Find My”) are the out-of-the-box options for locating your lost or stolen device.

Find My Device provides status of last viewed date/time, network connectivity and battery level, phone identifier (IMEI) and location on a map

Remote management features including ringing at high volume, displaying an on-screen message, securely locking and signing out of the Google account, and remote wipe/wipe of the content on the device

Find My iPhone provides the date and time you were last connected to iCloud, location on a map, approximate battery level, and whether the device is charging

Remote ability to call phone, put iOS device in lost mode and wipe data remotely

The best alternative to track a lost or stolen smart device outside of the Apple or Google ecosystem is Prey. The service offers free and paid tiers of service and can track both mobile devices and laptops.

How to tell someone to check your location

When using Google’s Find My Device service, a brief notification will appear, which in turn is easily seen in the notification log.

Android 11 has popped up a more accessible notification history list. Pull down the notification bar and tap History. All dismissed notifications are presented chronologically.

For iPhones, the Find My service works similarly via iCloud. There is a brief notification icon in the status bar when checking the device’s location.

Loot is a little different. The service is working hard to not show notification tracking.

For all those lost/stolen phone services, you can remotely secure the device and post a message on the screen if you want to disclose that the device has been tracked.

Your smartphone has 5 ways to track your position. Can you guess which one is the best? In this article you will find the answer.

Final Thoughts

For all cell phone users, remember that your approximate location is a technical requirement for the provision of cell service and mobile data. Your wireless service provider continuously logs your location and may be required to disclose this history through legal requests for information. Private individuals do not have this location data.

Smartphone users can recognize when someone or a service checks their location. You can find a tracking history by browsing your device’s apps or settings. Users may also have the option to view this list of locations on a service’s website.

As users become more privacy-conscious, device manufacturers, app developers, and wireless carriers are introducing more transparency to let users know how location data is collected, used, and stored.

User Note: Remote location services and location sharing come with privacy costs. You hire the companies you hire to protect your real-time data from theft and only share your location with third parties who are authorized to receive it. Please use these services if and to the extent that the benefits to you outweigh the risks.

In this video (6m13s@2x), The Hated One goes over all the ways your smartphone tracks your location.

Related questions and tips

Can I track a cell phone with just a phone number?

Individuals cannot track a phone’s location using just a phone number, SIM chip, or phone IMEI identifier. Law enforcement agencies can legally gain access to an approximate location through cellular service providers.

How can I locate a cell phone for free?

Google’s Find My Device and Apple’s Find My iPhone services can both track a cell phone for free at no cost. Several third-party services like Life360 and Prey Project have free/free offers. These are described further in this article.

How Can I Track Cell Phone Location Without Them Knowing?

For smartphones, location tracking can be achieved by installing an app that requires physical control of the device and consent from the owner. Feature or “dumb” phones need help from the carrier to locate the phone based on the cell tower connection.

Hello DobbyBea,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities! We see you’re having a floating gray box issue and not sure how to prevent it, and we’d love to help.

Find that gray box on all screens with all apps? If that’s the case, there might still be some kind of accessibility feature enabled.

You mentioned disabling the accessibility shortcut, but not all of the accessibility features.

It sounds like you are using an older version of iOS as Settings > General > Accessibility has been replaced with Settings > Accessibility in newer iOS versions. So please be patient with us if the steps are slightly different.

If you look at the Accessibility Support page, Switch Control might be what’s at play here. See if you can disable this feature.

Use Switch Control to navigate your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

We also recommend making sure each accessibility feature is disabled or disabled. If you need to turn one back on, wait for the floating gray box to go away, then turn on one at a time to make sure it doesn’t start the gray box back.

We hope this helps. Take care!

You can allow apps to use your phone’s location to perform actions for you or give you information. For example, apps can use your phone’s location to show commutes or find nearby restaurants.

Important: Some of these steps only work on Android 11 and later. Learn how to check your Android version.

Find out which apps are using your phone’s location

Swipe down from the top of the screen. Touch and hold Location . If you don’t find location: Tap Edit or Settings . Then drag location to your quick settings. Tap App location permissions. Under Always allowed, Allowed only while in use, and Not allowed, find the apps that can use your phone’s location. To change the app’s permissions, tap on it. Then select location access for the app. Learn more about app permissions.

Tip: If these steps don’t work for you, If these steps don’t work for you, contact your device manufacturer

Prevent an app from using your phone’s location

You can control which apps can access and use your phone’s location and when. For example, you could allow Google Maps to use your phone’s location to give you directions, but not share your location with a game or social media app.

Look for the app icon on your phone’s home screen. Touch and hold the app icon. Tap App info . Tap Location of Permissions. Choose an option: Always : The app can access your location at any time.

: The app can use your location at any time. Only while using the app: The app can only use your location when you are using this app.

The app can only use your location if you use this app. Ask every time: Every time you open the app, you will be asked to use your location. The app can use the setting until you close it.

Every time you open the app, you’ll be prompted to use your location. The app can use the setting until you close it. Deny: The app can’t use your location even if you use the app. If you’ve allowed location access, you can also turn Use Precise Location on or off.

Tip: To prevent all apps from using your phone’s location, learn how to turn off location settings.

Learn how an app can use your phone’s location

Important: If an app has permission to use your phone’s location, it can use your phone’s approximate location, exact location, or both.

Look for the app icon on your phone’s home screen. Touch and hold the app icon. Tap App info . Tap Permissions More All Permissions. Under “Location” you will find the type of location that the app requested. If you don’t find “Location”, this app didn’t ask for your phone’s location.

Types of location apps can request:

Approximate location: The app can determine that your phone is within an area of ​​about 3 square kilometers.

The app can detect that your phone is within a range of about 3 square kilometers. Precise Location: The app can know the exact location of your phone.

The app can get the exact location of your phone. On Top: The app can only use your location when the app is open on your screen or when you ask the app to do something.

The app can only use your location when the app is open on your screen or when you ask the app to do something. In the background: The app can use location information at any time, even when you are not using it.

Why apps ask you to change location settings

“Change location setting?”: Your phone’s location needs to be enabled for the app to work properly.

Your phone’s location must be enabled for the app to work properly. “Improve location accuracy?”: If location is already enabled for an app, the app may prompt you to enable additional settings or sensors to better determine your phone’s location.

If location is already enabled for an app, the app may prompt you to enable additional settings or sensors to better find your phone’s location. Wi-Fi connection: An app can prompt you to turn on Wi-Fi or let your phone search for Wi-Fi networks. Scanning for WiFi helps find your phone’s location more accurately.

An app can ask you to turn on Wi-Fi or let your phone search for Wi-Fi networks. Scanning for WiFi helps find your phone’s location more accurately. Google Location Services: Let apps find your phone’s location more accurately. Learn how Google Location Accuracy improves your location information. Google Location Accuracy is also known as Google Location Services.

Change other location settings