Do you ever see a purple arrow on your iPhone? That symbol is more important than you think and should therefore not be ignored. This is what it means!
Location Services iPhone
Symbols appear regularly on your iPhone. The battery symbol has four different colors, which tells you whether the energy saving mode is enabled or the battery is almost empty. A symbol that you probably see less often is a purple arrow on your iPhone. This symbol shows your iPhone which applications use the location services on the device.
The arrow is therefore an important symbol, because it lets you know at what times an application checks your location. The symbol can appear in three different colors, which are white, gray and purple. The white arrow appears in your Control Center, letting you see if an application is using your location. You have to look harder for the gray and purple arrow, because they appear in the settings of your iPhone.
This means a purple arrow
The icon for your iPhone’s location services is extremely important. An application that has access to location services can find and store your precise location. It is therefore wise to regularly check which apps can use your iPhone’s location. In your iPhone’s settings you will find a complete list, where gray and purple arrows appear behind apps that use location services. This is how you see it:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone;
- Go to ‘Privacy and security’;
- Tap ‘Location Services’;
- Finally, check which apps use location services.
Have you gone to ‘Location Services’ on your iPhone? You will then see in one overview which applications have access to your location. Is there a gray arrow behind an app? Then this component has used your iPhone’s location over the past 24 hours. Do you see a purple arrow behind an app on your iPhone? In that case, this software recently used your location. Check these applications carefully, because they have recently discovered your precise location.
Hide location
Don’t recognize an application? Or have you not used an app for a long time, but a gray or purple arrow appears on your iPhone? Then it is advisable to disable the location services for this software. To do this, go back to ‘Settings > Privacy and security > Location Services’ and tap the item you want to change. Select ‘Never’ if you want to disable location services.
It is recommended to only enable location services for applications that really need this function. Consider the Find My, Weather and Maps apps, which do not function or function poorly without access to your location. Are you unsure whether an application needs your location? Then disable the function as a precaution, and you will then automatically notice whether the app still works properly.
Want to know more?
The purple arrow is an important tool, so you can see exactly which apps have recently used your location. Using this symbol you can check whether the location services of your iPhone are not being misused by certain components. Many apps don’t need your location at all, so you might want to disable the feature. Did you find this tip useful and would you like to know more? Then sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter so you always stay informed!
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