iOS 12 on iPhone allows you to spy on nearby conversations via AirPods

iOS 12 was released last September, with the introduction of a feature for AirPods called “Listen live“(Live Listen, in English). Thanks to it, an iPhone can be used as directional microphone and AirPods as a hearing aid for people with hearing difficulties. This tool is practical for situations with a lot of noise. However, the safety of the feature was compromised.

Anyone who leaves their iPhone somewhere can spy on conversations through their AirPods. This is what a Twitter user named Arnold discovered, with a tweet that he already has 152,000 likes and 50,000 retweets.

If u have AirPods?, U can press “Live Listen” to “On” and leave your phone in the room with someone and u can hear what they saying, thank me later? pic.twitter.com/fC6KYmqpB4

– arnold (@arnoldcrndo) January 9, 2019

To activate the function, you need to go to Control center in Settings, assign controls Customize and on the “+” sign that appears next to the Listen icon that appears. After leaving the function activated, you just need to leave iPhone in the room and go to another room to be able to hear what others are saying without any problem.

But that is not all

This feature has more usefulness, such as being able to use cell phones and AirPods as if they were a walkie-talkie or even cheating on an exam if you have long hair and don’t require people to have their hair tied up. In fact, it works with any Bluetooth headset, without having to be AirPods. Therefore, smaller headphones can also be used.

Apple has not yet decided whether it will change or eliminate the feature

These types of applications can be of concern to Apple itself, as the company is always at the forefront of maintaining its devices and day-to-day management with security systems, as well as being one of the companies that respects users’ privacy and anonymity.

While leaving iPhone in a public place can be suspicious, leaving it at home or in a safe place where we know there will be other people poses no risk to the owner.

Apple has not claimed that it is aware of the situation yet or if it will do anything to resolve it. It is a problem with a difficult solution, since any kind of alert on the mobile disturbs those who use it for the true purpose for which it was created. We’ll see if they decide to get rid of the feature entirely while looking for a solution.