Our phones now have more apps that we can keep count of. As a result, Rogue apps sometimes masquerade as utilities and may misuse the granted permissions to secretly snoop on you. Smartphone manufacturers, as well as Google, have grown wary of the issue and every time an app uses the camera, microphone, or the location in the background on Android 9 Pie and upwards, you get a notification. Xiaomi has also added visual cues in MIUI 12 and so has Apple with iOS 14 to alert users every time an app accesses some features in the background. For phones by other manufacturers or running older versions of Android, Access Dots offers a similar solution by showing colored indicators every time an app uses the camera or the mic.
The app is created by XDA Recognized Developer jagan2, who has also created apps like Energy Ring, Energy Bar, and Energy Notch in the past. Much like the implementation in iOS 14, Access Dots shows colored dots whenever the camera or the mic is in use. Although the dots show up at the top right corner of the display, you can also choose the location for the dots from within the app's settings. You can also choose from different colors for the camera and the microphone and change the size of the dot from the Settings.
The app is free to use and is live right now on the Google Play Store. jagan2 also notes that the app itself does not access the camera or the microphone. You can see it in action in the GIF shared below, showing camera access for Instagram Stories.
Access Dots is expected to work on all Android devices with Android 7.0 Nougat and upwards. You can visit the Play Store link below to download it now or visit the XDA forum thread to give feedback/suggestions.