Signal is using the camera and/or microphone without being in an ongoing call or recording

[christoffercarlsson]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

Hi,
I'm experiencing strange behavior on Signal for iOS: The camera indicator in the iPhone status bar is showing that the Signal app is accessing the camera and/or microphone at seemingly random times even when no voice or video call is currently ongoing.

This is the second time I've seen this kind of behavior on iOS with Signal specifically, first on iOS 17 a couple of weeks ago and today on iOS 18 (did a factory reset and a fresh install of iOS 18 after seeing the issue the first time on iOS 17).

What can cause this type of behavior? Is this a known issue or something new that you haven't seen before?

Steps to reproduce

• Open the Signal app
• Use the app as normal without starting a video or voice call
• Put the app in the background
• Bring the app back to foreground
• Continue using the app as normal, again not starting any video or voice calls
• Manually quit and restart the app

Actual result: Sometimes the iPhone camera and microphone indicator in the iOS status bar becomes active immediately after Signal is opened and then stays active until app is put in the background, even though no video or voice call and/or recording of any kind happened during that time. Bringing the app back to foreground will reactivate the indicator until the app is either put back into background or explicitly closed.

Expected result: Signal should only ever use the camera and/or microphone when there's an active call or recording taking place initiated by the user. All other times the app should not be using the camera or microphone.

Screenshots

Device info

Device: iPhone 14 Pro

iOS version: 18.0

Signal version: 7.30 (357)

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/ios/7.30.0/a09be583cd5baed1a1d1184b3c5fd6e8ad521e5c3bd32e809032c464e724ee04.zip