What Your iPhone Status Bar Says About You

On your iPhone, the status bar is the oval serving as background to the time display at the top left. Don’t worry, it’s not there to judge or rate you. Rather, it can appear as one of 4 different colors to show you the status of your phone’s current activity.

Here you can quickly check if you are actively using one or another function like calling, directions, etc. Let’s see what they each mean.

Green status bar on the iPhone

If there’s a green status bar behind the time display, it indicates one of two things:

Either that you’re currently on a phone or video call or that your personal data hotspot is on and is being used (by someone else). So if you want to confirm the call you thought you finished has actually disengaged (before you start telling someone else all about the conversation), check there’s no more green oval.

If you didn’t intend to share your data with others, you can easily switch off sharing your hotspot by going into Settings/Personal Hotspot and ensure that “Allow Others to Join” is not showing a green bar (see below). If it is, simply tap it to show grey. As using another’s hotspot requires knowing the 8-digit hotspot password, it’s unlikely a random stranger would have been able to consume your data, so there’s little to worry about in leaving it on.

Red status bar on the iPhone

If you see red behind the time, it means you’re currently recording either a video or sound (eg. a voice memo).

To stop it quickly, simply tap it. If you’re looking for tips on how to record sound, you can find the basics in our previous post here.

Blue status bar on the iPhone

The blue color also shows one of two things. Most commonly, it indicates that you’re actively using your location, for instance using a mapping app to get directions. Because location service drains the battery very quickly, It’s helpful to be able to check at a glance if it’s still on so that you can be reminded to turn it off once you no longer need it.

Alternatively, the blue status bar can indicate that you’re using the Screen Mirroring feature on your iPhone.

Screen Mirroring or casting is when you wirelessly broadcast what’s on your iPhone screen in real-time to another display nearby, like your TV screen. It’s a great way to be able to see and share photos and movies on a larger screen. If you missed our post on how to do so, you can find that here.

Purple status bar on the iPhone

Purple is the status bar color you’re probably least familiar with as it indicates you’re using SharePlay.

SharePlay is a feature used to share content like a video or music with friends or family during a video (FaceTime) call.

Just see the time with no status bar behind? Then you’re not actively using any of the above features. Simple.

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